Alien Enemies Act Deportations Were Carefully Orchestrated To Keep Courts In The Dark

Josh Kovensky has a step-by-step account of how the Trump administration planned and executed the renditions of Venezuelans to El Salvador. They started by laying a framework based on the Alien Enemies Act.

But applying the law to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that is neither a government nor engaged in an invasion of the United States, would require groundwork. On Jan. 20, Trump took the first step in that direction: he issued an executive order designating TdA as a terrorist organization. Trump promised in his inauguration speech to invoke the act, saying he would direct the “full and immense power” of federal and state law enforcement against unspecified “foreign gangs and criminal networks.” 

But the administration had a problem. If the act was to be invoked, there would surely be a legal challenge. And yet, without judicial oversight, the act could plausibly be in effect for long enough to allow for removals before the plodding court system kicked into action. How could the government assemble enough people that might plausibly be subject to a future Alien Enemies Act proclamation (though some were not) without tipping off anyone who might sue to block the effort? 

They began arresting Venezuelan men in February. From the news reports now appearing, they didn’t much care about whether those men belonged to TdA.

In the first week of February, ICE began to detain Venezuelan asylum seekers. These were people who were already in the then-standard system for seeking asylum, and were abiding by the rules to remain in the United States, which included regular check-ins with federal authorities. In several cases, ICE detained these people at their check-ins on the basis of their having a tattoo. 

There was no further due process. The men were imprisoned and moved to prisons from which they could be easily airlifted to El Salvador. They were not allowed to call family members or lawyers. Then Trump signed the Alien Enemies proclamation, and then the planes took off, timed to get ahead of court action.

The Department of Justice, now representing Trump, has been stonewalling Judge James Boasberg with claims of necessary secrecy for national security. In a remarkable twist of fate, Judge Boasberg has also been given a lawsuit against Pete Hegseth and others for their breach of security, claimed by the administration to be no big deal.

Nobody knows what happens next.

Trump wanted to start out his presidency by mass deportations. That was what his campaign rallies had cheered for. But upon getting into office, he found that those deportations would be harder to organize than handing out the posters at his rallies, something that many of us had been saying. This would be the immigration portion of his “shock and awe” presidency. The kidnappings of campus activists probably share that motive.