by Lorenzo Rossi
A America in war without a war. This is how the latest move of Donald Trump could be described, which on March 15 invoked a law of war times to expel over 200 alleged members of the Venezuelana gang Tren de Aragua towards El Salvador. An unprecedented decision in the recent history of the United States, which has raised the indignation of organizations for the defense of civil rights. The fear? That this is only the first of a long series of large -scale deportations, exploiting legislation born for real war scenarios.
A federal judge had attempted to block the operation, imposing a suspension of fourteen days to evaluate the legitimacy of the provision. But the White House said that the planes with the prisoners on board had already taken off when the court decision was issued. Fact made, point and head.
When the law becomes a political weapon
The White House justifies the operation by appealing to the fight against organized crime. According to the Trump administration, the Tren de Aragua It is not a simple gang, but a “terrorist organization” that leads “an irregular war” against the United States, with the complicity – clear or occult – of the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
And here opens a huge debate. Human rights organizations Aclu And Democracy Forward contest the use of the legislation, underlining that theAlien Enemies Act It has never been applied in peacetime. “A terrible day for our nation” – denounce – “the president has made public its intention to invoke extraordinary powers in the absence of a war or an invasion”.
A legislative weapon born more than two centuries ago
But what is this law that Trump brought back to the limelight? THE’Alien Enemies Act he even dates back to 1798one of the laws on sedition and foreigners, approved when the United States feared a war with revolutionary France. Of that legislative package, only this rule has survived to the present day.
In war time, theAlien Enemies Act grants the president exceptional powersauthorizing it to arrest, transfer and expel citizens of enemy countries without the need for evidence, hearings or processes. In American history it was used only three times:
1812Anglo-American war: the British residing in the United States were recorded and checked.
1917First World War: President Woodrow Wilson used it to intern about 6,000 citizens of central empires (especially Germans).
1941attack by Pearl Harbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americansof which two thirds were US citizens. Only in 1988 Washington recognized the error and spent official apologies to the victims.
Trump therefore fits into a historical tradition that, so far, had made sense only in the most dramatic moments of American history. But today there is no war situation for the USA as in the three illustrated cases.
A precedent that worries
The invocation of theAlien Enemies Act From Trump he changes the rules of the game in the management of immigration. If the president can declare “enemies” groups of migrants, without there being an official conflict, then the definition of “threat” becomes arbitrary. Who will be the next? Mexicans, Haitians, Central American? American history has already experienced seasons in which panic has justified drastic choices. Often, in hindsight, they have been recognized as Historical errors. But the lesson does not seem to have been learned. Trump is rewriting the rules of post-war America. The question is: who will oppose before they become the new normality?
