Tell Congress to Repeal the Alien Enemies Act

President Trump has invoked the disgraced Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out the wrongful deportation of more than 270 immigrants without due process.

As legal cover, Trump pointed to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — the same law used to detain German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants during World War II and strip them of their rights based solely on their nationality. 

While the forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, was carried out under Executive Order 9066, the Alien Enemies Act helped justify restrictions on Japanese immigrants and set a dangerous precedent for racialized policies that framed innocent people as “alien enemies,” separated countless families, and cost thousands their homes, businesses, and livelihoods.

The Supreme Court has now opened the door for Trump to continue using the Alien Enemies Act, making it even more important that Congress take action to repeal this outdated law. With the green light from the Court and Trump openly musing about deporting U.S. citizens, we are seeing just how far this administration is willing to go to tear families apart.

This is an alarming escalation of this administration’s cruel mass deportation operation, which is actively endangering millions of immigrants and people of color. We refuse to go back to a time when our neighbors were disenfranchised, locked up, and deported just because of where their families came from. 

Tell Congress to pass the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which would strike this racist and outdated law from the books.