The Alien Enemies Act Is Compassionate...But To American Citizens, Not Illegals
The outcry against deporting even the most dangerous criminal aliens shows just how challenging regaining American sovereignty will be.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, directing the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to apprehend, detain, and deport members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) from the United States.
According to a report by the Heritage Foundation, TdA functions as a “tool of asymmetric warfare employed by the Venezuelan regime” to destabilize countries and assassinate political opponents while maintaining plausible deniability.
TdA’s reach into the fabric of America became glaringly obvious when a video surfaced showing gun-wielding Venezuelan migrants storming through an apartment building in the suburban city of Aurora, Colorado. According to court documents, the apartment investor said they “lost control” of several apartment buildings to the gang, and have been renting out units to migrants under “threat.”
Given the reach and threat posed by TdA, the Trump Administration moved quickly to expedite the removal of these gang members, sending approximately 250 people whom it says are members of Tren de Aragua, as well as some MS-13 members, to El Salvador’s Cecot prison.
Given the scale of America’s illegal alien problem, differentiating members of Tren de Aragua or other foreign gang members from the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States under the previous Biden Administration will be a difficult task. And to be sure, deportations at the scale necessary after decades of mass immigration, both legal and illegal, will undoubtedly produce a few mistakes or adverse outliers.
Yet the outcry against deporting even the most dangerous criminal aliens shows just how challenging regaining American sovereignty will be, while also exposing the motivations on the left and the right that are determined to maintain the immigration status quo.
Consider the media uproar surrounding the so-called “Maryland Man,” Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration initially said was deported due to an “administrative error,” but has since reaffirmed that he is an alleged member of MS-13 and should have been deported and incarcerated.
This is a man who entered the U.S. illegally in 2012, was arrested twice, is alleged to be a gang member, had a temporary protective order filed against him by his wife, and was placed in deportation proceedings.
Yet, Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen still flew to El Salvador to appeal for his return.
Later, a report by a well-known libertarian think-tank analyzed those who were deported along with Garcia, claiming that 50 of the more than 250 men sent to El Salvador’s Cecot prison had immigrated to the U.S. ‘legally,’ while also stating that the majority had “no apparent criminal records.”
Whether the men in question were ‘legally’ in the U.S. or had criminal records is, of course, beside the point. If you are in a violent gang as a legal or illegal immigrant, you do not deserve to stay in the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been steadfast in articulating this belief, asserting that “In the case of El Salvador, we [only] deported gang members.”
That said, any mistakes that have been made or will be made in the future around mass deportations do not negate the urgent necessity and the administration’s Constitutional authority to defend American sovereignty and protect national security.