Trump plans to use old law for faster migrant deportations

🚨 #BREAKING: President Trump is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which will DRAMATICALLY increase the speed of mass deportations, per CNN

THIS is what we voted for!

They’re ALL going back! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6akM4jZQGu

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 13, 2025

CBS News noted that under this act, migrants would face expedited removal: “Those subject to the Alien Enemies Act would not be allowed to have a court hearing or an asylum interview since they would be processed under an emergency, wartime authority — not immigration law. Instead, they would be eligible to be detained and deported, with little to no due process, under Title 50, the section of the U.S. code housing America’s war and defense laws.”

Democratic lawmakers expressed their opposition in a March 11 letter to Trump, stating: “As a legal matter, migration is not an ‘invasion.’ As courts have consistently held, an ‘invasion’ under the Constitution requires ‘armed hostility from another political entity, such as another state or foreign country that is intending to overthrow the [] government.’ Courts’ requirement of an armed attack is consistent with how the term ‘invasion’ is used throughout the Constitution, alongside language like ‘insurrection’ and ‘rebellion.'”

The letter, signed by prominent Democrats including Senator Richard Durbin and Representative Pramila Jayapal, notably omitted addressing the “predatory incursion” component of the legislation.

Democrats typically view migrants as economically disadvantaged refugees, rarely acknowledging how migrants and their home governments might strategically utilize U.S. asylum policies for their benefit.

NEW: The Trump administration is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a sweeping wartime authority, in the coming days, sources familiar w/ the move tell @priscialva @jmhansler & me

The move is designed to speed up the president’s mass deportation pledge

— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) March 13, 2025

The 1798 act belongs to a category of immigration laws that have largely fallen dormant, similar to requirements for new citizens to renounce aristocratic titles or declare non-affiliation with Nazi camps or the Soviet Communist Party.

The law states: “Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.

The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety.”