The Worst Thing Trump Did on 3/15/25

Someone in the Trump Administration (Trump stares at the sun.  He clearly did not come up with this legal nonsense) is trying to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to forcibly eject all Venezuelans from the United States.

First, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was designed for wartime, and it was even aggressive for such times.  It allows a president to detain and remove people threatening the country's safety without any due process.  This was last used to justify the Japanese internment camps, one of the larger stains on this country.

It might cross your mind, "but we're not at war with Venezuela." You are correct! A declaration of war comes from Congress, and we have not declared war on them. 

This seems to rotate around a pledge Trump made to remove violent gang members who have come to this country. We actually have a lot of rules on the books allowing gang members and violent criminals to be deported, so why are they attempting to use some ancient rule to try to argue for something they can already do?

It seems to come down to the Trump Administration not having the evidence to attach a 'criminal' or 'gang member' label onto every Venzuelan in the United States, or (and this is probably more likely) they're lazy and don't have the man power to make the numerous arguments (whether legit or made up) in all the court cases. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows them to bypass the court system and just deport at will. 

Yes, this means Trump will likely throw out long-time US CITIZENS from Venezuela who are neither criminals nor gang members.  This is ethnic cleansing, wrapped in convenience, to fulfill a campaign talking point.

A judge quickly halted this from going forward and ordered any planes in the air to return to the United States. but it was the DOJ's legal briefing to the judge that caused a lot of legal experts to be in shock.  The DOJ is now arguing that the President alone can determine who can be deported, AT ANY TIME!  This would mean people like myself, whose families have been here since the early 1800s, could be removed and sent back to an ancient relative's country of origin.

It's the bipolar outrage of Republicans that is most disturbing. If Biden had merely suggested using this rule for his agenda, they'd be going berserk! Trump does it, and they applaud.