Japanese American Citizens League: Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act ‘Unlawful’
By P.C. Staff
The Japanese American Citizens League issued a statement March 17 condemning President Trump’s March 14 use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan criminal gang to a prison in El Salvador, despite a federal judge’s order to halt the action. (See related story at tinyurl.com/3dd2r555.)
JACL called Trump’s use of the AEA “unlawful,” saying that it may only be invoked in a time of war. According to the Constitution, Congress, not the Executive Branch, has sole power to declare war, despite claims by the White House that its use of the AEA to deport illegal migrants and others is justified because it claims the U.S. in under invasion. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was last invoked during World War II by President Roosevelt. It had also been used during World War I and the War of 1812.
In Little Tokyo on March 18, meantime, a news conference organized by Nikkei Progressives held at Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza in front of the Japanese American National Museum underscored many of the same points from the perspective of several community organizations including Hope Nakamura of Nikkei Progressives, JANM Chief Impact Officer Kenyon Mayeda, National JACL VP of Public Affairs Seia Watanabe; Tuna Canyon Detention Center President Kyoko Nancy Oda, Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice Deputy Director Lizbeth Abeln, Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Rimban William Briones and Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey.
National JACL VP of Public Affairs Seia Watanabe speaks March 18 in Little Tokyo. (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)
“The Japanese American Citizens League condemns the Trump administration’s unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act,” said Watanabe. “The Alien Enemies Act was last used to intern 31,000 Japanese, German and Italian nationals during World War II. As the Japanese American community knows, the scope was expanded to include United States citizens through the Executive Order 9066, leading to the incarceration of over 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry. We fear that the Venezuelan immigrant community is now being similarly targeted through the unlawful use and expansion of the alien enemies act.”
Also present for news outlets were June Aochi Berk, 92, who had been incarcerated at the Rohwer War Relocation Authority Center in Arkansas; Carrie Furya Morita, whose grandfather was detained under Alien Enemies Act at the Tuna Canyon Detention Station in Los Angeles County and the Lordsburg POW Camp in New Mexico; and Kathy Masaoka, who grandfather was similarly detained under the AEA at Tuna Canyon, as well as at Bismarck, N.D.
Hours after Trump claimed that the members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were invading the United States and ordered their deportation, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued his ruling to halt the deportation process on March 15 but it was after the government carried out the airlift. The judge later said that after he had learned that the airplanes carrying the prisoners to El Salvador had already left the United States, he ordered the White House to immediately halt further removals and the return to the U.S. any flights that were in progress — which did not happen.
When Boasberg questioned on Monday whether the Trump administration ignored his verbal orders that the airplanes carrying the deportees to El Salvador return, the White House contended that, according to the Associated Press, “verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn’t apply to flights outside the U.S. and that they could not answer his questions about the trips due to national security issues.”
Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli contended that only Boasberg’s short written order, issued about 45 minutes after he made the verbal demand, counted. It did not contain any demands to reverse planes, and Kambly added that it was too late to redirect two planes that had left the U.S. by that time.
The JACL stated: “We call for the administration to comply fully with the temporary restraining order and halt any deportations under the proposed authority of the Alien Enemies Act. The alleged blatant disregard for Judge Boasberg’s orders to turn the plane carrying deportees around cannot be tolerated in a nation of laws. The Alien Enemies Act cannot be invoked without a declaration of war, an act that only Congress can take.”
To read the entirety of the JACL’s statement, visit here.
— Associated Press contributed to this report.
