President Donald Trump plans to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act—“designed to allow the president to authorize the relocation, arrest, or deportation of any man older than 14 years old who hailed from a country at war with the United States”—to expedite the removal of immigrants, particularly known gang or cartel members, without court hearings.

By bypassing traditional due process requirements, the move marks an escalation in his immigration enforcement strategy, granting expansive authority that could extend to individuals not facing criminal charges and potentially accelerating Trump's mass deportation efforts.

“The strongest argument that the Trump administration might attempt is that migration from Mexico or other Latin American countries amounts to an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion’ at the behest of drug cartels that operate as de facto governments in those regions. On that theory, the Alien Enemies Act permits him to deport Latino immigrants who are undocumented or involved in criminal drug activity indeed, even if they are legally present,” William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, tells Newsweek. 

“There is no doubt that the Alien Enemies Act confers broad powers on the president. Such expansive authorities are not uncommon for wartime ‘exigencies,’” says Banks. “However, a reading of the Act to support migrant deportation is at odds with centuries of legislative, presidential, and judicial practice, all of which confirm that the Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority.”

In the Stateline article, “Blue states fear invasion by red-state National Guard troops for deportations,” Banks discusses the introduction of legislation in Washington state that would make uninvited deployments of out-of-state troops illegal. 

“It’s like an insurance policy,” Banks says of the bill. “It may be a very good idea to call attention to the independence of the state government and its perspective that they’d very much like to be in charge of their own internal affairs, including migration or whatever else might be going on.”