4 hours Ago
As a young adult, I entered the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order, where among other missions, I worked with orphaned children and internally displaced people in El Salvador during their civil war. It was a dangerous time, and people were frequently “disappeared.” I never thought I’d be watching similar scenes play out here in America.
In March, President Donald Trump invoked the archaic Alien Enemies Act to disappear over 100 Venezuelan immigrants to a megaprison in El Salvador. This law was passed in 1798 as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, a suite of highly partisan statutes designed to target immigrants under the guise of national security. Thomas Jefferson allowed three of the four laws to expire, but the Alien Enemies Act remains.
The Alien Enemies Act grants the president sweeping powers to detain or deport immigrants based solely on nationality during times of war. The law has been used just three times: in the War of 1812, World War I, and, infamously, in World War II to imprison Japanese-Americans in internment camps — a shameful chapter in our history. Trump has illegally used this law now to sidestep due process.
The men sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act were given no trials, no judges and no opportunities to argue their case. Their families were given no information on their whereabouts. The Trump administration has admitted in court that at least one of the men imprisoned, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father with protected legal status, was wrongfully deported.
The administration called it an “administrative error,” but despite this admission — and a unanimous Supreme Court order — it is still refusing to bring him back. Kilmar and these men remain in prison with no end in sight. That is morally reprehensible.
That is why I’ve stood with my colleagues to call on Trump to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, and I’ve helped introduce legislation that would finally repeal the Alien Enemies Act. Trump would like to make this a debate about deporting criminals. But it’s really about our fundamental rights.
The Constitution requires the government to give every one of us the right to fairly contest allegations. If the government can abuse its authority and deport anyone without due process, then none of us are safe. Trump is moving us closer and closer to that reality.
Just recently, three children — all U.S. citizens — were deported to Honduras.
One of the children, a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer, was deported without medication. If this innocent child who has committed no crime is not returned to the U.S.
, he has been handed a death sentence, as his medical team is in the United States. The presiding judge — a Trump appointee — said it’s their “strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S.
citizen with no meaningful process.” In March, Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student, was walking down the street when plainclothes ICE agents ambushed her and took her from her school in Massachusetts to a detention center in Louisiana. It appears her detention is due to an op-ed she co-authored in her school paper.
Related Articles How to save the LA28 Olympics from the incompetence of Los Angeles leaders Los Angeles County doesn’t fix problems. It just pays to make them go away. Trump’s attacks on the press threaten a critical check on government Did they forget the pension crisis? Suzette Valladares: The film and TV tax credit is a lifeline for working-class Californians In April, U.
S. citizens who had recently moved to Oklahoma had their home mistakenly raided by ICE agents. A mother and her daughters were forced outside while agents tore apart the house.
The officers seized phones and their life savings in cash without telling the family how to get their items back. If these instances sound unlawful and un-American, it’s because they are. Trump is working to weaponize immigration enforcement to create an increasingly brutal and unaccountable system — one where anyone could be mistreated, denied justice and left without recourse.
No American voted to give up rights or access to due process when Trump won last year. We all must stand united against these continued attacks on immigrants, our Constitution and the rule of law. Juan Vargas has represented the San Diego border region in the House of Representatives since 2013.
.
