President Donald Trump plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as early as Friday, according to The New York Times, a move that would accelerate his campaign promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history as Trump administration officials have expressed frustration over setbacks to deportation efforts.
In the lead-up to the presidential election, Trump said he would carry out the “largest deportation ... [+]
The Trump administration is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act as early as Friday, people familiar with the matter told the Times, after Trump first floated using the law during an election rally in October (the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment).
The Alien Enemies Act allows the president to direct all “natives, citizens, denizens or subjects” of a country the U.S. is at war with, who are male and at least 14 years old, to be “apprehended, secured and removed as alien enemies.”
Trump’s approach will likely target Venezuelan crime group Tren de Aragua, CNN reported Thursday, which Trump could potentially argue is responsible for an “invasion” or “incursion,” per the law.
The escalation follows several reports that Trump administration officials have expressed frustrations about the rate of deportations, despite Trump’s initial executive orders sending military to the southern border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out raids in major cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, among others.
Officials have expressed frustrations about the rate of arrests outpacing deportations, the Times reported, and about countries denying planes of migrants, according to NBC News.
Immigration officials arrested more people in the first 22 days of February than in any month since 2018, according to Homeland Security data obtained by the Guardian, but the agency’s facilities have been filled to capacity amid challenges to deport the roughly 47,600 migrants, including issues securing planes and agreements to send the migrants to their home country, the Times reported.
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It’s unclear how Trump will implement the law—previously invoked during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II—as it can only be applied to countries the U.S. has declared or against, or in the case of “any invasion or predatory incursion” that is “threatened against [the U.S.]
Federal agents deported about 11,000 migrants last month, a figure lower than the more than 12,000 deported in February 2024, according to ICE data obtained by NBC News. Border traffic was higher last year, however, as people arrested by Customs and Border Protection accounted for most of the deportations. Excluding deportations made at the border, about 4,300 immigrants were deported in February, compared to 2,100 in February 2024.
Former ICE officials have warned that arrests don’t immediately lead to deportations, as each case requires court rulings and coordination across multiple U.S. agencies, among other logistical hurdles. Some ICE operations will likely require Congress to approve additional funding, as the agency faces a budget shortfall to maintain existing deportation levels under a current spending plan that expires Friday. The Trump administration has also challenged immigration policies in several cities, including Chicago, which the Justice Department claims has policies that are “designed to and interfere with” the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
In the lead-up to the presidential election, Trump signaled plans to “seal” the southern border and launch the “largest deportation program in American history” on his first day in office. During his inaugural address, Trump said his administration would “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Trump has vowed to ban so-called sanctuary cities, hire thousands of new border agents and suggested all migrants in the U.S. illegally could be subject to deportation. Homan has said the Trump administration’s deportation policy prioritizes “worst first,” indicating people with criminal records or those suspected of being national security threats would be prioritized for deportation.
Forty migrants who were being held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba have been flown back to the U.S., and it’s not immediately clear whether the U.S. will send more migrants to the base, U.S. officials told Fox News and the Washington Post. The migrants were sent to Alexandria, Louisiana, where another group of 48 migrants were sent in February, the Post reported. The Trump administration has spent $16 million on plans to send migrants to the naval base, according to the New York Times, but temporary tents that were erected failed to meet ICE standards, according to Fox.
Homeland Security launched a new app earlier this week that includes a new “self-deportation reporting feature,” which the agency said would allow undocumented migrants to report their intent to leave the country. The app and self-deporting feature are part of a larger “Stay Out and Leave Now” ad campaign, valued at $200 million, Homeland Security said.
Trump Administration Flies All Remaining Guantanamo Migrants Back To U.S. (Washington Post)