Latest news with #1798Act
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Thune not sure what authority Trump using to deploy Marines to Los Angeles
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) supports President Trump's deployment of federal resources to quell the riots in Los Angeles, but he's not sure what authorities Trump is relying on to deploy 700 active-duty Marines to a U.S. city. 'I don't know the particulars on what authorities exist there but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can't do under the law. Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it,' Thune said, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes the president during a declared war, invasion or predatory incursion to detain and deport citizens of an enemy nation. Thune argued that a federal response was warranted because local authorities failed to contain property destruction and the threat of violence. 'In this case at least there were clear just failures on the part of state and local officials, which is why I think it required the president to take a federal response,' he told reporters. 'There was a security situation out there that needed to be addressed and I think ultimately the president's objective is to keep people safe.' The Pentagon on Monday ratcheted up the federal response to immigration enforcement protests by mobilizing 700 active-duty Marines. Trump has also deployed 4,000 National Guard soldiers to the area — doubling the 2,000 he initially mobilized. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) insist the situation was under control before the Trump administration escalated tensions by making a provocative show of force. Newsom accused Trump of 'intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities and endangering the principles of our great democracy.' He said Sunday that Trump had taken over the California National Guard because 'they want a spectacle.' Bass said over the weekend that deploying the National Guard was 'completely unnecessary' and would escalate tensions. She argued that the Los Angeles Police Department was 'well equipped' to handle protests of actions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Thune not sure what authority Trump using to deploy Marines to Los Angeles
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) supports President Trump's deployment of federal resources to quell the riots in Los Angeles, but he's not sure what authorities Trump is relying on to deploy 700 active-duty Marines to a U.S. city. 'I don't know the particulars on what authorities exist there but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can't do under the law. Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it,' Thune said, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes the president during a declared war, invasion or predatory incursion to detain and deport citizens of an enemy nation. Thune argued that a federal response was 'warranted' because local authorities failed to contain property destruction and the threat of violence. 'In this case at least there were clear just failures on the part of state and local officials, which is why I think it required the president to take a federal response,' he told reporters. 'There was a security situation out there that needed to be addressed and I think ultimately the president's objective is to keep people safe.' The Pentagon on Monday ratcheted up the federal response to immigration enforcement protests by mobilizing 700 active-duty Marines. Trump has also deployed 4,000 National Guard soldiers to the area — doubling the 2,000 he initially mobilized. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) insist the situation was under control before the Trump administration escalated tensions by making a provocative show of force. Newsom accused Trump of 'intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities and endangering the principles of our great democracy.' He said Sunday that Trump had taken over the California National Guard because 'they want a spectacle.' Bass said over the weekend that deploying the National Guard was 'completely unnecessary' and would escalate tensions. She argued that the Los Angeles Police Department was 'well equipped' to handle protests of actions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SCOTUS Dramatically Stops Trump's Brazen Immigrant Roundup
The Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump's plan to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador—for now. In an overnight emergency order issued just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, the high court thwarted the Trump administration's attempts to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to conduct mass deportation flights from a Texas migrant detention center. 'The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,' the justices wrote, with conservative justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh breaking ranks to side with their liberal peers. Conservative stalwarts Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. The ruling comes after two Trump-appointed judges, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, refused to pause any deportations under the obscure 1798 Act, which was last used widely during World War II to expel nationals of enemy states. However, the High Court's order supersedes that ruling and applies to any migrant detained in the Northern District of Texas who would be removed under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act—which Trump first invoked in a March 15 executive order. The Court's ruling does not apply in other jurisdictions. 'The matter is currently pending before the Fifth Circuit,' the justices wrote, referencing an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to stop deportations. Late Friday, the organization requested an emergency injunction and stay of removal from SCOTUS, fearing that deportations were imminent, NPR reported. The ACLU also requested that migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act be given at least 30 days' advance notice. The justices added, 'Upon action by the Fifth Circuit, the Solicitor General is invited to file a response to the application before this Court as soon as possible.' The Court's order marked the second blow dealt to the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda in just over a week. The justices ruled 9-0 that the Trump administration must 'facilitate' the return of a Maryland father wrongly deported to El Salvador on Thursday. Yet Trump's continued defiance of the order has deepened a growing power struggle between Trump and the justices after the high court granted him broad immunity for official presidential acts last year. The Trump administration's disregard for lower courts has also heightened fears of a constitutional crisis, Fortune reported. 'If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general on how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal,' Vance claimed in a February X post. 'Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.' Leading up to the Court's order, the ACLU requested that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, block the deportations. However, Boasberg ruled Friday that he had no jurisdiction over the matter. 'I am sympathetic to everything you're saying, I just don't think I have the power to do anything,' Boasberg said during the hearing.
The Guardian
15-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump invokes 18th-century wartime act to deport five Venezuelans
Donald Trump has invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US. In a presidential proclamation issued on Saturday, the White House said: 'Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.' The invocation of the wartime act comes just hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's administration from using the 1798 Act to carry out its intended deportations of the Venezuelans. On Saturday, US district judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington DC agreed to issue temporary restraining order that prevents the Venezuelans' deportation for 14 days. 'Given the exigent circumstances that it [the court] has been made aware of this morning, it has determined that an immediate Order is warranted to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set,' Boasberg wrote in his order. Boasberg's decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed the same day by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward. The organizations charge that the Trump administration unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. In the lawsuit, ACLU and Democracy Forward argue the act has been invoked only three times in the history of the US: the war of 1812, first world war and second world war. 'It cannot be used here against nationals of a country – Venezuela – with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States,' the lawsuit stated. 'The government's proclamation would allow agents to immediately put noncitizens on planes without any review of any aspect of the determination that they are alien enemies,' the lawsuit added. A remote hearing has been scheduled for today at 5pm before Boasberg. Both ACLU and Democracy Forward will ask that the temporary restraining order be broadened to everyone in danger of removal under the act, the civil liberties organizations said. The president had previously ordered his administration to designate Venezuela's Tren De Aragua gang as a foreign terrorist organization. With Trump characterizing the gang as a foreign force that is invading the US, civil liberties organizations such as the ACLU fear that Trump may invoke the 1798 act 'unlawfully during peacetime to accelerate mass deportations, sidestepping the limits of this wartime authority and the procedures and protections in immigration law.' The invocation is expected to face legal challenges almost immediately. The 227-year-old law is designed to primarily be used in wartime, and only Congress has the authority to declare a war. But the president does have the discretion to invoke the law to defend against a 'threatened or ongoing invasion or predatory incursion', according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan authority on law and policy. 'This law shouldn't be invoked because migration is not an invasion, and we're not in a war time,' said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, the deputy director of federal advocacy for United We Dream, an immigrant rights organization. 'It's extremely horrifying that we, as immigrants, are being labeled as terrorists, as invaders.' Those subject to the Alien Enemies Act could be deported without a court hearing or asylum interview, and their cases would be governed by wartime authority rather than by immigration law. The Alien Enemies Act specifically allows the president to detain, relocate, or deport immigrants based on their country of ancestry – and crucially covers not only citizens of hostile nations but also 'natives', which could include people who may have renounced their foreign citizenship and sought legal residency in the US. The centuries-old law was also used to arrest more than 31,000 people – mostly people of Japanese, German and Italian ancestry – as 'alien enemies' during the second world war, and played a role in the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war. Trump has been building his case for invoking the act for years by characterizing the influx of migrants at the southern border as an 'invasion'. He also previewed his invocation in an executive order on his inauguration day, directing the secretaries of state to plan by preparing facilities 'necessary to expedite the removal' of those subject to the act. 'By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities,' he said in his inaugural address. Though anti-immigrant politicians and groups have long advocated for the use of the act in response to unlawful border crossings, Macedo do Nascimento said a number of executive orders and congressional policies have already broadened the federal government's authorities to detain and deport immigrants. 'There are already laws that allow for mass detention. There are already laws, like the Laiken Riley Act, that would broaden the dragnet of people who can be detained,' Macedo do Nascimento said. 'So the idea of him invoking the Alien Enemies Act feels kind of needless. To me, it is really about building the narrative to label immigrants as terrorists.'
Chicago Tribune
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Donald Trump invokes 18th century law to declare invasion by gangs and speed deportations
Claiming the United States was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang, President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a sweeping war time authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action, to speed up mass deportations of people in the country illegally — potentially pushing his promised crackdown on immigration into higher gear. Trump's declaration targets Tren de Aragua, contending it is a hostile force acting at the behest of Venezuela's government. The declaration comes the same day that a federal judge in Washington barred the administration from deporting five Venezuelans under the expected order, a hint at the legal battle brewing over Trump's move. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using an 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act to deport five Venezuelans, kicking off a blizzard of litigation over the controversial move even before the president has announced it. President Donald Trump has widely signaled he would invoke the 1798 Act, last used to justify the internment of Japanese-American civilians during World War 2. On Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward filed an extraordinary lawsuit in federal court in Washington contending the order would identify a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, as a 'predatory incursion' by a foreign government and seek to deport any Venezuelan in the country as a member of that gang, regardless of the facts. James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the D.C. Circuit, agreed to implement a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation for 14 days under the act of the five Venezuelans who are already in immigration custody and believed they were being moved to be deported. Boasberg said his order was 'to preserve the status quo.' Boasberg scheduled a hearing for later in the afternoon to see if his order should be expanded to protect all Venezuelans in the United States. Hours later, the Trump administration appealed the initial restraining order, contending that halting a presidential act before it has been announced would cripple the executive branch. If the order were allowed to stand, 'district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint,' the Justice Department wrote in its appeal. It said district courts might then issue temporary restraining orders on actions such as drone strikes, sensitive intelligence operations, or terrorist captures or extraditions. The court 'should halt that path in its tracks,' the department argued. The unusual flurry of litigation highlights the controversy around the Alien Enemies Act, which could give Trump vast power to deport people in the country illegally. It could let him bypass some protections of normal criminal and immigration law. But it would face immediate challenges along the lines of Saturday's litigation because it has previously only been used during wartime. The law requires a formal declaration of war before it can be used. But immigration lawyers were alarmed by a flurry of activity Friday night. 'Last night, it appears the government was preparing to deport a number of Venezuelans they had no legal authority to deport,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles who filed two petitions to block deportations that night.
