WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is preparing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as early as Friday, granting his administration broad authority to detain and deport certain noncitizens without due process, including sending them to Guantanamo Bay, CBS News reports.
The 227-year-old law allows the president to order the arrest, detention and deportation of noncitizens 14 years or older from countries deemed to be staging an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States. CBS News reports that Trump intends to use this authority to target suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that his administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
Two officials told CBS News that preparations are underway to send suspected gang members to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, soon after the law is invoked. While the administration has already detained some migrants at the base in recent weeks, those facilities were reportedly empty earlier this week.
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Individuals subject to the Alien Enemies Act would not have the opportunity for a court hearing or an asylum interview, as their cases would fall under emergency wartime authority rather than standard immigration law. Instead, they would be detained and deported under Title 50 of the U.S. Code, which governs national defense laws.
The Alien Enemies Act has been enforced only a handful of times in U.S. history, including during World War II, when the government used it to surveil and detain Italian, German and Japanese immigrants, according to CBS News. Applying the law to migrants from countries with which the U.S. is not actively at war is expected to face legal challenges.
Trump previewed this move in an executive order issued on his first day back in office, directing the State and Homeland Security departments to prepare for the law’s potential invocation and to establish facilities necessary for expedited removals.
In his inaugural address, he underscored his intent to use federal and state law enforcement to “eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil.”
