Sofia Ferreira Santos
BBC News
Distribution materials via Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Reuters
More than 200 Venezuelans who the White House claims to be members of the gang have been deported from the United States to the infamous megajails in El Salvador.
Of the 261 deported, 137 have been removed under the alien enemy law, senior managers told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
This broad, centuries-old law was invoked by President Donald Trump. He accused Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua (TDA) of “convicting, threatening and threatening invasions or predatory invasions” on US territory.
The lower court temporarily blocked these deportations on March 15th, and found that the administration’s actions under the law needed to be further scrutinized. However, in a 5-4 decision on April 7th, the Supreme Court lifted the block and required procedural safeguards while monitoring alongside Trump.
What is an act?
Alien enemy laws empower the United States to clean up the president of the United States to order the detention and deportation of indigenous people or citizens of “enemy” countries, without following the usual process.
It was passed as part of a series of laws in 1798, when the United States believed that it would enter into war with France.
The law states, “whenever there is a declared war, […] Alternatively, an invasion or predatory invasion can “allow “all subjects of a hostile country or government” to be arrested, restrained, secured and removed against the United States “as hostile enemies.”
When was it used elsewhere?
This law has only been used three times before – all at a time of dispute involving the US.
It was last called in World War II. At that time, it was reported that Japanese people (the figures are approximately 120,000) were jailed without trial. Thousands were sent to concentration camps.
German and Italian ancestors were also detained during that time.
Before that, the law was used during the wars of 1812 and the First World War.
Trump said – and what was the response?
This is the first time that this act has been used by Trump, but not the first time he has mentioned it.
In his first speech in January, he said he would invoke the act to “eliminate the existence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks that would bring catastrophic crime to the US soil.”
In a declaration on Saturday, Trump evoked the wording of the law by accusing the TDA of threatening “aggression” against the United States. He declared its members “has an obligation to arrest, restrain, protect and remove them as enemy of the alien.”
Trump’s decision has been criticized by rights groups. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called for the US to stop the removal because it was not at war.
Speaking to BBC News on Sunday, ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said “there is no question that the law is being violated.”
Surveillance: Attorneys say “unsuspected” that US deportation violates the law
Federal judge James Boasberg tried to halt the use of the law to carry out deportation, but the White House said this “has no legal basis” and that rescue had already been made.
This led to the front and back of between a federal judge and the government in Washington, D.C. Boasberg dismissed the government’s response to his order as “severely inadequate” and warned of the outcome if the Trump administration violated his ruling.
Donald Trump returned to social media and said Boasberg should be fired up each and called him “ancestor.”
In response to a news article covering the judge’s original order, President Naibe Bukere, El Salvador, wrote on social media:
Venezuela criticised Trump’s use of law, saying it “unfairly criminalizes Venezuelan migration” and “calls the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.”
Katherine Yong Ebright, a lawyer with the Brennan Judicial Center, said in a statement that Trump’s use of alien enemy law is illegal.
“The only reason to evoke such power is to allow for the sweeping and deportation of Venezuelans based on their ancestry, rather than gang activity that could be proven in immigration lawsuits,” she added.
