Claiming the United States is being attacked by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to order the rapid detention and deportation of all Venezuelan migrants suspected of being members of TdA, treating them as wartime enemies of the U.S. government.

The president argued, in his proclamation, that members of the Venezuelan gang are “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

The Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the “natives” and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing and based only on their country of birth or citizenship. It 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 the Second World War, a shameful part of U.S. history for which Congress and several presidents have

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