Based on this claim, Trump deported over 200 men suspected of gang involvement to a prison in El Salvador.
What Is the Alien Enemies Act?
The Alien Enemies Act was passed in 1798, alongside the Naturalization Act, Sedition Act, and Alien Friends Act, during rising tensions with France. The law has remained on the books for more than two centuries, rarely used until Trump’s recent actions.
The Alien Enemies Act, first signed into law as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, allows the president to detain and deport immigrants from enemy nations during wartime, with no requirement to show evidence of disloyalty or criminal behavior.
The law states that “whenever there shall be a declared war…or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened” against the United States, all “subjects of the hostile nation or government” can be “apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.”
Intelligence Memo Contradicts
A declassified memo from U.S. intelligence agencies, released by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, contradicts Trump’s justification.
