March 17, 2025 — Washington, D.C. — Legal experts and civil rights advocates are raising alarm over what they call an unprecedented abuse of executive power after President Donald Trump invoked the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals. The move has been condemned as a dangerous step toward authoritarianism and a direct threat to democratic norms.
On March 15, the Trump administration ordered the deportation of 261 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador, where they are now being held in indefinite detention in the country’s notoriously violent prison system. The action, carried out under a wartime law historically reserved for conflicts involving declared enemies of the United States, marks the first time the Alien Enemies Act has been invoked outside of wartime conditions.
A federal district court in Washington, D.C., immediately issued a temporary restraining order blocking the deportations and ordered the administration to return the detainees to U.S. soil. However, the Trump administration refused to comply, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction because the deportees were already in international airspace.
The mass deportation follows another controversial move by the administration: the attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a U.S. legal permanent resident. Khalil, who has not been accused of any crime, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after participating in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. According to administration officials, Khalil was targeted because his presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” A federal judge in New York ordered DHS to halt Khalil’s deportation, but the Trump administration has ignored the ruling, continuing to hold Khalil in ICE custody.
The nonprofit advocacy organization Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) condemned the administration’s actions, calling them a blatant abuse of power.
“This blatantly unconstitutional and unlawful power grab reveals the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda for what it is — an authoritarian turn in our nation’s history and a time when the rule of law is under direct threat,” said FJP Acting Co-Executive Director Amy Fettig. “This is a five-alarm fire for our democracy.”
Fettig criticized the administration’s repeated defiance of court orders and its willingness to use national security as a pretext for political repression. “The weaponization of national security to wield law enforcement against this administration’s political enemies is the sort of behavior that authoritarian regimes in other nations routinely employ to suppress their own citizens.”
The Alien Enemies Act, passed in 1798, has been used sparingly in U.S. history—only during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II — to authorize the detention or deportation of citizens from enemy nations during wartime. It was infamously invoked as legal justification for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Legal scholars widely agree that the law is limited to wartime use and apply only to nationals of enemy states. The Trump administration’s attempt to redefine unlawful migration as an “invasion” marks a radical departure from centuries of legal precedent. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the move represents a “staggering abuse” of executive power.
By this interpretation, nearly 12 million residents—mostly people of color—could be classified as “foreign enemies,” opening the door to mass detentions and deportations.
FJP warned that these actions are part of a broader strategy that includes targeting sanctuary cities, prosecuting local officials, and dismantling constitutional protections. “We are seeing an Administration that has no respect for the Courts, no respect for Congress, and no respect for the basic separation of powers outlined in the Constitution,” Fettig said.
Fair and Just Prosecution is urging the public to recognize the severity of this moment and demand accountability, warning that the nation is veering toward a dangerous erosion of democracy.
Only democrats would be against deporting criminals who are not citizens of this country.
Another 80-20 issue with the democrats on the 20 side. At this rate democrats will never be in power again.
Keith is making a substantive point on a procedural issue.
“At this rate democrats will never be in power again.”
I’m waiting for the day neither one is in power. It’s a game that the 2-party system always wins at, while Indivisible Yolo screams at clouds thinking it’s making a difference, when they do as much as an elderly congressman shaking their cane at Trump.