President Donald Trump has invoked an 18th-century wartime law to carry out a large-scale deportation operation.

As he promised on the campaign trail, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to send hundreds of people with alleged Venezuelan gang ties to El Salvador, ignoring a court order blocking their deportations. The law, passed in 1798 as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, allows the president to detain and deport noncitizens from countries at war with or invading the US.

Before now, the law had only been used three times in history — during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II — all of which involved official congressional declarations of war. Trump’s attempt to invoke the law without any such declaration is unprecedented and, according to legal experts, an illegal abuse of power.

“President Trump is now invoking wartime powers during a time of peace to justify rounding up potentially millions of people,” said Amy Fettig, acting co-executive director of the civil rights group........

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