In his inaugural address last Monday, President Donald Trump dug deep into the archives to unearth a law that would empower his campaign against immigrants. “By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,” Trump announced, “I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”

A wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the “natives” and citizens of an enemy nation, the Alien Enemies Act has been invoked just three times in American history, each during a major conflict: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It is best known for its role in Japanese incarceration during World War II, a shameful part of U.S. history for which Congress and several presidents have apologized.

The Alien Enemies Act provides sweeping powers to detain or deport foreign nationals and is ripe for abuse, according to experts. The archaic law discriminates against immigrants based on their country of citizenship and, more broadly, based on their ancestry. It also requires no evidentiary thresholds and provides no due process protections, like the right to a hearing or the right to appeal. “What else has been so aggressively rejected — by presidents, Congress, and the judiciary — and considered one of the most shameful episodes in American history and then revived?” asked Katherine Yon Ebright of the Brennan Center’s liberty and national security program and one of the foremost experts on the Alien Enemies Act. “President Trump should leave the Alien Enemies Act in the dustbin of history.”

When the law was last invoked in World War II, the Alien Enemies Act provided the legal authority for incarcerating noncitizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent. It allows presidents to target people because of their identity, not their conduct or the threat they pose to national security. Last week, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, legislation that would repeal the AEA.

“We cannot allow antiquated laws to continue enabling discriminatory practices that harm immigrant communities. The Alien Enemies Act has been used to target immigrants based solely on their nationality, leading to shameful chapters in our history,” said Omar. “President Trump’s new administration is also threatening to use this law for sweeping detentions and deportations of immigrants without due process based solely on national origin. Repealing this law is a necessary step toward creating an immigration system rooted in justice and compassion.”

The Alien Enemies Act is the last remaining portion of the notorious 18th-century Alien........

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