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Want Migrants gone?

... you could be next

By: elvia Diaz
Arizona Republic
USA Today Network

Phoenix - There are no signs yet that talk of Donald Trump's terror will push undocumented immigrates to self-deport in droves. Instead, they and their U.S. citizen children might end up in hugely profitable "tent cities" or "interment" camps in the middle of nowhere and forgotten just like the Japanese, Germans and other Europeans during World War II.
..... No hits isn't hyperbole. It's part of Trump's plan, and it is coming right out of his mouth.
..... The president-elect and his people seem serious about invoking the Alien enemies Act of 1798 to round up undocumented immigrants in the United States.

It's dangerous to invoke alien Enemies Act

..... A lot of Trump supporters love the idea of eradicating all the immigrants - criminals or not. But do they want this done by any means necessary?
..... That's dangerous stuff, and not because mass deportation won't necessarily secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, as Trump promise dot get reelected. Butt because handing over such unlimited power to a single individual puts everyone in danger
..... If Trump is allowed to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, he or a future president could use it on a whim against any American deemed an enemy.
..... There's a good reason why the 1798 las has invoked only three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

W Hat does Alien Enemies Act do?

..... It allows the president in wartime to "detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation," Katherine Yon Ebright of the Brennan Center for Justice explained.
..... Only Congress can declare war.
..... The act can be sued in times of "declared war" or when a foreign government threatens or undertakes an "invasion" or "predatory incursion" against U.S. Territory.
..... This is where it gets dicey.
..... Cleanly, the United States is not at war with Mexico - not in the literal sense, as legal experts say is the intent of the 1798 act.
..... But anti-immigration hardliners argue that drug and human trafficking and the thorns of asylum seekers showing up at the border constitute an "invasion" and "predatory incursion."
..... Legal scholars and experts have extensively weighted in on the constitutionality of invoking the Alien enemies Act as an immigration enforcement tool.
..... No doubt, though, that the second Trump administration plans to invoke ti and test its legality.

Wilson locked people up for years

..... It's imperative, then, to understand how this largely forgotten law was sued in the past to try to gauge what might happen under the Trump admin station and future presidents - if he gets his way.
..... Congress declared ware against Germany in April 1917. Then President Woodrow Wilson seized on the Alien Enemies act to ultimately imprison more than 6,000 Germans at war prison barracks built in states such as Georgia and Utah.
..... Enemy aliens then weren't limited to those born in countries at war with the United States but also some who "expressed pro-German sentiments and hostility to US involvement in the war," according to the National Archives.
..... The war flighting ended in November 1918, but arrest kept going until 1919. and the last prisoners weren't released until June 1920.

Nearly 70,000 US citizen rounded up in World War II

..... That's damning, right? At minimum, it shows how easily the act can be abused.
..... Years later, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the evacuation of "all persons deemed a threat form the West Coast to internment camps" and government "relocation centers," according to the National Archives.
..... By then, the FBI had already identified German, Italian and Japanese people suspected quickly spread to "all persons of Japanese descent, whether foreign born or American citizens.
..... The result? About 112,000 persons were sent to "assembly centers," including racetracks or fairgrounds. That includes nearly 70,000 U.S. citizens.

Trump's border czar has studied this history

..... Tellingly, Trump's new border czar and other hardliners have carefully studied the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and how it was carried out.
..... According to NBC News, they're eyeing remote locations in Texas and elsewhere to build detention centers, just like it was done during World War II.
..... The point of remote sites, I suppose, would be to keep the detained migrants out of sight, hidden from Americans who would protest their deportation.
..... But I bet Trump's immigrations czars didn't read or are ignoring the fact that former Republican President Ronald Reagan singed a law in 1988 acknowledging the injustice of "internment."
..... Either that or they just don't care about one of the Republicans' longstanding mantras to respect the rule of law.

'The only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal'

..... It's easy and convenient to forget about America's past, especially mistakes made in the heat of political upheaval and war.
..... The latest anti-immigration paranoia is as intense and discriminate as that against the Japanese, who were falsely accused of remaining loyal to their ancestral land, or the Germans and other Europeans before them.
..... But don't forget Reagan's words as he apologized for the World War II "internments," quoiting himself as a young actor" "Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world - the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way."
..... As much as Trump wants it, the United States is not technically at war with Mexico or Venezuela or Haiti or El Salvador or Nicaragua or any other country that people are fleeing to seek refuge in America.
..... You may want mitigation gone by any means. But you ought to question the wisdom of letting Trump invoke such awesome powers as the Alien Emmies Act of 1798. he or future presidents could easy turn it against anyone in American deems an enemy.

..... Elvia Diaz Republic and azcentral, where this column originally appeared. Reach her at elvia,diaz@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on X, formerly Twitter:@elviadizl.

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