President Trump has invoked a controversial 18th-century law last used to justify the arrest and internment of 30,000 Japanese, German and Italian nationals during World War II, as part of his ongoing crusade against immigrants. Citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the Trump administration deported more than 130 immigrants who have been accused, often with little to no evidence, of gang affiliation. The ACLU won a judicial order against the deportations, which the Trump administration ignored, allowing the flights to continue to El Salvador, where authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele received the deportees at a notorious supermax prison. We speak to Lee Gelernt, who argued to stop the flights on behalf of the ACLU, about Trump’s attacks on established U.S. immigration law. We cover the second Trump’s administration’s attempts to incarcerate immigrants at the Guantánamo military prison and end birthright citizenship, as well as the ongoing effects of his previous administration’s policies of family separation and countrywide travel bans.
