Hours later, a federal judge granted a request from civil rights groups to stop Trump from deporting Venezuelan migrants currently in custody under the act.
Here’s what to know as the legal battle over the law plays out.
What is the Alien Enemies Act of 1798?
The law lets the president skip the usual immigration court process to detain and deport anyone age 14 or older who is from or the citizen of a “hostile nation or government.” This can happen only if the United States has declared war against the hostile nation or, crucially, if the president feels there is any “invasion or predatory incursion” threatened or attempted against the United States.
The idea is that a person from another country would be loyal to their homeland and thus pose a threat if the United States were at war with that nation.
Only Congress can declare war, and Congress has not declared war against Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly framed the movement of immigrants who illegally enter the United States as an “invasion” and has cast immigrants as a violent threat, even though studies show they commit crimes at lower rates than citizens.
The Alien Enemies Act was part of a package of laws created when John Adams was president. Tension with France was high, and the two countries were on the brink of war, said Cody Nager, a historian of early American immigration and research fellow at the Hoover Institution think tank. Back then, if Congress was out of session, lawmakers couldn’t fly back or call in to vote to declare war. Allowing the president leeway to make a move before a war vote is held was designed to get around that.
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