More than 100 Venezuelan migrants are in an El Salvador prison after the Trump administration invoked a wartime power to deport them without due process. What happens next could fundamentally change the rule of law in the country, experts told NOTUS.
“It’s a huge test for the judiciary, and ultimately the Supreme Court, whether they’re going to allow the administration to abuse a wartime authority like this,” said Tom Jawetz, former deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and now a fellow at the Center for American Progress. “The power that they’re claiming to have is the power to arrest, detain and deport someone, no questions asked, and that’s a power that could lead to quite significant abuses.”
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, last used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, to order the removal of migrants his administration claims are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The administration sent the migrants to El Salvador despite a judge’s order saying the planes should be turned around. The migrants are now in a mega-prison even though a U.S. official said “many” have no criminal record.