Trump invokes a law used only in wartime to deport migrants, and a judge blocks it.

WashingtonDonald Trump has revived a law that in nearly 250 years of American history has only been invoked in times of war to expedite deportation plans. This Saturday afternoon, when no one was looking, the White House issued a proclamation activating the Alien Enemies Act to facilitate the expulsion of Venezuelan migrants. Although the 18th-century law has only been in effect for a couple of hours. Shortly after, a federal judge in Washington issued an order provisionally blocking the deportation of any migrant under this three-century-old law.

Since his campaign rally in Aurora, Colorado, Trump had already floated the possibility of reinstating this law, which has only been activated during the 1812 War with the British, World War I, and World War II. In fact, he was expected to announce it this Friday during his speech from the Department of Justice, where he described himself as "the chief law enforcement officer in our country," although that role falls to the Supreme Court. Finally, however, he did so on Saturday afternoon, posting it on the White House website and not sending it through press notifications, as has been the case with executive orders and other actions the administration has implemented thus far.

The invocation of the rule has even caught the courts off guard, which have had to convene a last-minute hearing. Judge James E. Boasberg has ruled to block the law's enforcement as a precautionary measure and ordered a halt to any deportation plans that had been activated under the directive. The judge believes that its execution falls outside the scope of presidential power and points out that it could cause irreparable harm "as these people will be deported, and many or the vast majority will end up in prisons in other countries or will be sent back to Venezuela, where they face persecution or worse." Therefore, the judge asked the Department of Justice to comply "immediately" with the temporary order.

The rule was created when the United States was about to go to war with France in 1789, and there were fears that foreigners or non-citizens living in the country might end up sympathizing with the French. Despite being referred to as the "Alien Enemies Act," it is a set of directives that establish a requirement that a person must have resided in the country for between 5 and 14 years to be considered a U.S. citizen. This criterion gives the government more leeway to detain, imprison, and deport foreigners during times of war. Furthermore, the law also makes it a crime for U.S. citizens to "print, utter, or publish... any false, scandalous, and malicious writings" about the government.

In the text published by the White House, the law is justified invoking the law as a tool to deport Venezuelan migrants linked to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA, according to the acronym used by the government): "I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age and older who are members of TdA, are within the United States and are not restrained, detained, and expelled as Enemy Aliens."

According to the document, the law is intended to be used to persecute Venezuelan migrants linked to the Tren de Aragua. In February, EFE published that at least three people of Venezuelan nationality were detained and sent to Guantánamo under the pretext of being linked to the criminal gang, although their families claim otherwise. These people do not have a criminal record associating them with the Tren de Aragua, something that the government does assure us, although it has not provided public information about those detained on the island. The only common trait shared by the three detained men is that they had tattoos.

Trump has called those associated with the Tren de Aragua gang "the worst of the worst" and has made the criminal group one of the main elements of his xenophobic rhetoric to criminalize migrants arriving in the United States. The invocation of the Alien Enemies Act represents a new escalation in the campaign of fear against the migrant community, which has become one of the main soft targets of the US president's ultra-right agenda.

At the end of February, the Trump administrationp left unaccompanied migrant minors alone before the judges who order their deportationsThe government ordered the suspension of legal aid for some 26,000 children, including those who have been "victims of trafficking," according to NGOs.