Trump’s Alien Enemies Act Power Grab Signals the Death Knell for Democracy

Washington, D.C. –  Last week, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, claiming it will use the wartime authority to target Venezuelan migrants allegedly linked to Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Yet enforcement patterns suggest the new authority will only further ICE’s indiscriminate overreach, as agents continue to sweep up legal residents, U.S. citizens, and thousands of immigrants without criminal records.

The move is part of Trump’s broader authoritarian playbook, giving his administration unchecked power to weaponize vast troves of personal data and millions of dollars worth of anti-immigrant narratives he and his allies have spent years embedding into public consciousness. Cases like the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil and the forced removal of a U.S. citizen child with brain cancer prove that due process is already in peril. Now, with Trump seeking $350 billion to supercharge this agenda through reconciliation, the last guardrails protecting democracy are disappearing.

Statement from Beatriz Lopez, Co-Executive Director of the Immigration Hub:

“We are at a turning point that cannot be ignored. In less than 100 days, Trump has gutted critical immigration protections, made nearly a million TPS holders deportable, and sharpened a robust digital surveillance infrastructure to monitor immigrants and dissenters alike. Now, with the help of one of the most disgraceful laws in American history and a pending $350 billion check from Congress, he is prepared to detain and disappear individuals on a scale that the country has never seen before.

“The reality is that border crossings are at historic lows, long-settled immigrants are driving the economy, and most voters support a pathway to citizenship over mass deportations. But this agenda isn’t rooted in reality. For nearly a decade, Trump and his allies have saturated the public with anti-immigrant disinformation, fabricating a crisis to justify extremist policies that would otherwise have no support. Now, with little pushback, that fiction has taken hold—entrenching fear, distorting public perception, and even rallying voters behind a cruel agenda that ultimately harms their own families.

“We cannot wait until power is lost to fight for it back. There will be no mile marker, no definitive act of cruelty that forces action–nor should there have to be. Students are losing their status for speaking out, legal residents are being treated violently, and citizen children are being pulled from cancer treatment and deported from the only homes they’ve ever known. Each day of silence from Democratic lawmakers doesn’t just represent missed opportunity—it edges closer to tacit acceptance of these injustices. Our communities deserve defenders who recognize that in the face of systematic cruelty, neutrality is not an option.”

More on the Alien Enemies Act:

On March 14th, President Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act to order the arrest, detention, and deportation of Venezuelan migrants who are deemed to be members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang that the Trump administration designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization earlier this year. President Trump asserts that Tren de Aragua is invading and carrying out warfare with the United States. 

What populations will be targeted under the Proclamation? 

The proclamation states that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of Tren de Aragua, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States may be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as “Alien Enemies.” 

Although the March 14 proclamation is specific to Tren de Aragua, the administration in its Day 1 Executive Order 14157 and in subsequent actions has taken steps that could result in additional proclamations invoking the Alien Enemies Act for nationals of other countries.

Should we expect human rights and other abuses if Trump is able to use this Act for a period of time?

The Trump administration already has used the Alien Enemies Act to send more than 200 Venezuelan nationals to a notorious prison in El Salvador, where the U.S. government is reportedly spending millions of dollars to keep these deported individuals imprisoned for one year or longer. Nothing in the Alien Enemies Act or U.S. law grants the president the authority to disappear people from the United States and imprison them abroad, yet that is what we just saw; human rights abuses have already taken place.

By invoking the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration is claiming the power to detain and deport individuals without charges and without any court process, even if they have status in the U.S. This is a clear violation of due process protections. The invocation of this authority also raises significant concerns about racial and ethnic profiling in the U.S., as the lack of transparency and individual scrutiny could lead to the targeting of individuals based on their national origin or ancestry. In other enforcement contexts, civil rights and other organizations have repeatedly documented the impact of mischaracterization of individuals based on their appearance, heritage, or personal history. The invocation of the Alien Enemies Act should also be understood within a broader enforcement architecture that, among other things, prioritizes expediency through arrest quotas, will soon require millions of long-settled noncitizens to register, and is expanding the role of local law enforcement to conduct immigration enforcement. 

How long could Trump use this authority?

The ACLU and Democracy Forward are litigating this issue and we anticipate robust judicial review of the use of this law that is over 200 years old and clearly does not represent our values as a nation. The law does not guarantee due process even for those present with lawful status.

Are these policies and practices similar to past use of internment camps?

The current use of the Alien Enemies Act is targeted at nationals of a specific country (Venezuela) and it has now been used to detain and deport them without charges and without process. Venezuelans deported under the Act to El Salvador are effectively being held at a black site, so there are some similarities to the past use of internment camps in World War II and renditions in the post-9/11 era. 

Where does the money come from to operationalize the Act? Will they/how could they secure more money?

The Trump administration will likely use funding from the recent Continuing Resolution as well as funding from the reconciliation process, which could provide hundreds of billions of dollars for mass deportation and detention. It’s also likely that use of this authority will further enable the administration to leverage Department of Defense resources. The administration has reportedly explored using facilities on the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to house people deported under the Alien Enemies Act. 

What is the justification for this move?

The Trump administration is relying on a fiction that the United States is at war. This dangerous claim asserts that immigrants constitute a literal military-style invasion. It casts families desperate to call the United States home as enemies of the state and essentially soldiers of a hostile military force. 

The immediate consequences of the Act are of significant concern but no one should forget that their justification rests on nativist disinformation. Taking the administration at their word, there are deep downstream implications for fighting an imaginary war as if it were real. 

If most Americans support pathways to citizenship, why do some polls show Trump with a positive approval rating on immigration?

For decades, Trump and allies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-immigrant voter outreach across the digital ecosystem, using viral ads, posts, and news to fabricate a crisis where immigrants are scapegoats for economic instability, crime, and national security threats. With little to no pushback from the pro-immigrant left, Trump is able to distort reality while creating a political environment where cruelty is not just the only option, it’s a strength.

Voters may support pathways to citizenship in principle, but the absence of a compelling alternative vision allows dystopian rhetoric to dominate the conversation. Over time, relentless exposure to propaganda overtakes public perception, making even moderate voters more susceptible to extremist policies they may otherwise reject.

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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.