An executive order signed by President Trump over the weekend greenlit deportation flights carrying Venezuelan nationals accused without evidence of having gang ties.
The flights took off using an obscure wartime authority called the Alien Enemies Act.
William Banks is a Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs who specializes in military issues. He says the law was created in the 1790s, when the U.S. worried past conflict between Native American tribes and France could spill over to the new government. It has only reemerged during World War I and World War II.
“So for the Trump administration to raise it now, and to try to use that authority to try to deal with a criminal gang is pretty far-fetched. So the roadmap is unprecedented,” he said. “It’s quite rare and if the administration digs in its heels on the use of this authority and maintain that whatever the judge says they’re going to forward with the operation, then we have a crisis.”
Under the executive order, Venezuelans accused of having gang ties were stripped of due process and swiftly flown to El Salvador — despite an order from a judge barring the flight.
The ACLU has since announced legal action questioning whether the flight defied court orders.
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The department did not release a list of names of the people it says are family, business or personal acquaintances of people associated with the drug cartel. -
Two U.S. and two local Mexican officials died in the northern Mexican state. The state attorney general says they were on the way back from destroying alleged drug labs. -
The visit comes ahead of a mandated six-year review of the trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada this summer. -
The analysis uses government data, spanning asylum and refugee admissions to work visas and international students. -
In a letter to new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Gallego and Kelly say they’re writing to follow up on an original request from February — in which they asked the agency for more details about plans for a warehouse facility in surprise, and an old jail in Marana, just outside Tucson.
