Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called for Congress to repeal the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that President Donald Trump has cited as the basis for his deportation agenda.
Flanked by a handful of female Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon, Omar said Trump and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller planned to stretch the law to sweep up immigrants en masse.
“The context in which Trump and Miller are raising the Alien Enemies Act is in what they say are their plans to target cartels and transnational criminal gangs, but it is not what the Alien Enemies Act does,” said Omar. “The Alien Enemies Act targets people based on their nationality, not based on their behavior. … It does not allow them to target the Sinaloa Cartel. It allows them to target all Mexicans.”
Omar’s solution was the Neighbors Not Enemies Act she introduced Wednesday.
Trump declared during his inauguration address Monday afternoon that he would cite the Alien Enemies Act in order to go after criminal cartels.
“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” Trump said Monday.
After taking office, Trump signed an executive order, Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, which cited the existence of an “invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor, and to prepare such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.”
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) said it was up to lawmakers to change the law before the Trump administration could use it to carry out its action.
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“We have the power and the obligation to change the laws that allows this administration to treat the people we love as our enemies,” Ramirez said.
Omar and Ramirez were joined by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).