On March 15, 2025, President Donald Trump resurrected one of the oldest and most dangerous laws in U.S. history: the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Originally signed by John Adams during the Quasi War with France, it allows the president to detain or deport foreign nationals from enemy countries during a declared war. Prior to Trump, it has been invoked 3 times in US history: during the War of 1812 by James Madison to surveil British citizens, during World War I by Woodrow Wilson to intern German civilians, during World War II by Franklin Roosevelt (infamously) against Japanese, Italian, and German civilians, many of whom were citizens. And now it is being used by Donald Trump during the great arduous struggle against the powerful enemy nation of…..Tren De Aragua. Not even the country of Venezuela, but a literal street gang. So this begs the question; why this law, what does it actually say, and is what Trump is doing even legal? 

What Is the Alien Enemies Act?

The Alien Enemies Act was one of four acts passed in 1798 by Federalists as part of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. The four acts were:

1. The Sedition Act- suppressed and criminalized anti-government speech, widely seen as unconstitutional overreach and a violation of the First Amendment. Expired in 1800, but a similar law was passed by Woodrow Wilson in 1918, which in turn was repealed by Congress in 1920. Since then, no president has come anywhere near as close to such blatant censorship and violation of free speech rights.
2. The Naturalization Act- amended the Naturalization Act of 1795 by raising the residency requirement to become a naturalized U.S. citizen from 5 years to 14 years. While not unconstitutional, this law was repealed by Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans in 1802, who restored the original 5-year requirement, which is still the residency requirement to this day.
3. The Alien Friends Act- authorized the President to deport foreigners without trial, due process, or appeal in times of peace. Expired in 1800 and not renewed by the Democratic-Republicans, widely regarded to be unconstitutional today.
4. The Alien Enemies Act- authorizes the President to deport foreigners without trial, due process, or appeal in times of war. Invoked four times: briefly in the War of 1812, extensively during World Wars One and Two, and now by Donald Trump in 2025.

These four acts were widely seen to be a massive Federalist power grab, and largely tanked the popularity of John Adams and permanently shut the Federalists out of government following their loss in the 1800 election. The Alien Enemies Act is the only one of the four that has remained on the books. Why? Because it was seen as the most reasonable, since it could only be used during a declared war. It also only applied to nationals of enemy states. And so, it has sat dormant for most of U.S. history, only used four times since its passage.

The irony here is that even Adams himself never used it, because to many Federalists’ surprise, there was no formal war with France. The act was used first, ironically, by James Madison during the War of 1812 to impose restrictions on British nationals. It would be used again in both World Wars, first by Wilson against Germans, then by FDR against Japanese, German, and Italians. Most infamously, it helped justify FDR’s mass internment of Japanese civilians under Executive Order 9066.

But after 1945, it went unused. For 80 years, no president touched it; not during Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, or even Iraq. And yet now, in 2025, in a country firmly at peace…it has been invoked. 

How Trump Is Using It And Why It’s Legal Nonsense

Trump isn’t using the Act during a war, as Adams intended. He isn’t using it against enemy nations. He’s using it to deport people, largely Venezuelans, to foreign prisons without hearings, without trials, and without due process, under the pretext that they’re affiliated with drug cartels. And he isn’t even deporting them to Venezuela; he’s deporting them to El Salvador’s CECOT Prison. For context, CECOT is a maximum-security prison that Salvadorian President and self-styled “world’s coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele proudly has declared that “no one ever leaves.” Once someone is sent to CECOT, they will likely never be seen again. A max-security prison with a sketchy human rights record that people don’t leave with prisoners who have not even been charged with a crime? That’s not a prison, that’s a concentration camp. 

And without due process, how do we prove who is and isn’t in a gang? And in what universe is a gang now equal to an enemy nation? Tren De Aragua doesn’t have sovereignty, a military, a real government, or anything- they’re literally a gang. Can you imagine if some country, like say Germany, began locking up and deporting random black Americans to a concentration camp in Liberia with no process or trials to the US? And then they justify it by declaring the Bloods and Crips to be enemy nations? This is essentially what Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act amounts to for Venezuelans in the context of Tren De Aragua and El Salvador’s CECOT Prison. 

In other words, President Trump is deliberately abusing an obscure wartime law tocrush immigration rights and bypass the courts. 

The Act never authorized and was never intended ofr this kind of use. Even during WWII, it was only applied to nationals of countries at war with the U.S. Trump is the first president to invoke the law without a war, without an enemy nation, and without evidence. Even if Trump’s justification about a “war” with Tren De Aragua made sense (it doesn’t), deporting non-Salvadorans without due process to a literal concentration camp in El Salvador flies in the face of centuries of constitutional and legal precedent. John Adams himself would be in shock at seeing this, and other Founders like Washington and Jefferson would view Trump’s actions as tyrannical and tantamount to those of King George III that justified the Revolution in the first place.

The Korematsu Precedent — and the Lie of “Overruled by History”

While Trump’s specific actions are almost certainly illegal, there is some legal precedent backing the Republican argument, and it’s ugly. In 1944, the Supreme Court infamously upheld FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans in Korematsu v. United States, ruling that national security justified mass incarceration. It’s widely seen as one of the Court’s greatest failures, on par with Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sanford.

74 years later, the Court finally got a chance to right this horrific decision and set the record straight. And yet, in the 2018 case Trump v. Hawaii, the Court upheld Trump’s Muslim Ban. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts declared:

“Korematsu was gravely wrong… and has been overruled in the court of history.”

Sorry, but there is no “court of history.” This was paying lip service to the cause of overturning Korematsu, but by simply stating this, Roberts didn’t actually overturn Korematsu. He just said history disagrees with it. That’s not the same thing as overturning a Court ruling and establishing a new legal precedent, such as how Brown v. Board overturned Plessy, or how Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe and Casey. To this day, Korematsu remains on the books. Trump v Hawaii, quite ironically, actually revived the dangerous logic of Korematsu; that the president can use wartime powers to discriminate based on nationality or group threat. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote:

“By blindly accepting the Government’s misguided invitation to sanction a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity toward a disfavored group, all in the name of a superficial claim of national security, the Court redeploys the same dangerous logic underlying Korematsu and merely replaces one “gravely wrong” decision with another.”

And now? It’s this same logic being used to justify a policy far worse and far more dangerous than the Muslim Ban. Namely, the invocation of a dangerous law meant to target citizens of enemy nations in wartime….in a time of peace, against a literal street gang, in conjunction with an authoritarian regime that we pay $6000 per head to run concentration camps for us.

What Are the Real-World Consequences?

In March 2025, over 130 Venezuelans were deported to El Salvador’s massive CECOT prison — a place notorious for gang violence and human rights abuses. They weren’t given trials. They weren’t proven guilty of anything. Is it likely that all 130 are innocent? Absolutely not. Is it also likely that all 130 are guilty? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Without due process, we have no way of knowing. Courts later ruled the deportations illegal, ordering that they be allowed to return and fight their cases. But Trump is defying the rulings.

Meanwhile, ICE has conducted mass sweeps without warrants. Pro-Palestinian student protesters like Mahmoud Khalil have been detained and flagged as “national security threats.” Trump has allegedly even considered arresting judges and raiding congressional offices. And worst of all is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia: a Maryland dad mistakenly (by the Trump admin’s own admission) deported to CECOT, who was ordered to be returned by a unanimous Supreme Court ruling. And yet Trump has just…..stalled. Him and Bukele have played hot potato with responsiblity for this innocent man, a man held in a horrific foreign prison despite facing no charges in either the US or El Salvador, despite numerous court orders to bring him home, and despite the initial deportation being called an “administrative error” by Trump’s own admin. 

None of this has anything remotely to do with the original purpose of the Alien Enemies Act: to detain and dangerous enemy aliens in times of war. Trump is essentially invoking the law in a similar manner to the old Alien Friends Act, which was repealed over 220 years ago and would likely be struck down by any court in the country if passed again. Kilmar, the Venezuelans at CECOT, Khalil…there is no legal or moral justification to bypass due process for any of them, let alone to detain them and deport them in clear violation of their legal and civil rights. 

Why the Law Needs to Die

The Alien Enemies Act was the most restrained of the Alien and Sedition Acts. It survived because it was supposed to be limited and solely usable during formal war. But now, in the hands of a president who views immigrants as invaders, street gangs as enemy nations, Salvadoran concentration camps as legitimate prisons, and the courts and legal system as a nusiance. In this context…

It’s time to repeal it.

There’s no reason this law should still exist. We have modern tools to fight espionage, terrorism, and international crime. We simply don’t need a law from the 18th-centurythat allows blanket deportation of people based on national origin during fake wars to safeguard our “national security.” Let’s be honest: if we are ever at a point that due process is impossible or dangerous to security, then we’re likely either in a nuclear war or a civil war. “Enemy aliens” would be the least of our concerns then. And quite simply, holding a passport of an enemy country does not make one an “enemy alien.” 99% of the Japanese, German, and Italian citizens living in America in the 1940s had no ties to fascist governments, a good number came to America to flee government overreach and fascism. Similarly, most migrants today are not coming to destabilize and threaten the country and the economy as Trump says. Many of them are fleeing violence, instability, and economic despair in their home countries. 

If the courts don’t overturn it, Congress must. Because every year this law survives is a year we risk another Trump using it again. The Constitution doesn’t defend itself. The courts won’t always save us. And bad laws don’t disappear just because they go unused for two centuries. The Alien Enemies Act is outdated and dangerous. It was written for a world of monarchies and muskets, and now it’s being used in the age of ICE raids and Salvadoran mega-prisons. If America wants to prove it still believes in due process, civil liberties, and equal protection under the law, then this is the test. 

Repeal the Alien Enemies Act. For good. Before more innocent people get sent to concentration camps in El Salvador, and before due process and the legal system fully fall to authoritarianism.