Mass Deportations and the Alien Enemies Act

Bryan Dumont
Apr 17
5 min read

Updated: Apr 17

OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

April 15, 2025

The News:

WASHINGTON —A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Monday night from using a powerful wartime statute to deport to El Salvador Venezuelan immigrants in Colorado who have been accused of being violent gang members.

Mr. Trump’s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport scores of Venezuelan immigrants have set off one of the most contentious legal battles of his second term. It began last month, after the president invoked the act, which has been used only three times since it was passed in 1798, to authorize the deportation of people he claimed were members of Tren de Aragua.

The Question for the Panel:

Supporters argue the President has broad authority over immigration and that national security threats demand swift, decisive action.

Critics counter that this is a dangerous circumvention of due process, and the invocation of a centuries-old wartime law for political expediency threatens republican principles and the rule of law.

Is the President justified in invoking the Alien Enemies Act in this way?

Is this a legitimate use of executive power in the name of national security—or a violation of core constitutional and ideological commitments, especially due process and rule of law?

What would our Fathers say?

THE PANEL

John Adams

"Was there ever a Government, which had not Authority to defend itself against Spies in its own Bosom? Spies of an Ennemy at War?" – Letter to Jefferson, 1813

"Let us dispense with the nonsense at once, shall we? The Alien Enemies Act is not some dusty relic, nor is it an affront to liberty. It is a shield of republican virtue, forged not in panic but in the smoldering furnace of responsibility. I signed it into law, but with the reluctant solemnity of one who knows that republics are not kept by dreamers, but by men willing to do the thankless work of preservation. If you find the use of law offensive, perhaps you are not ready for self-government. If the executive fails to use lawful tools to defend the nation, then he is not a president—he is a coward with a sash."

(He glares through his spectacles, crosses his arms, and sighs dramatically.)

"And let us be clear: were I to have wielded the privileges of my office with the same carefree abandon as my philosophical friend from Monticello, perhaps he would not have spent the better part of his retirement lamenting what he and his ilk wrought."

Translation: I’m the only adult in the room. Again. You’re welcome.

Alexander Hamilton

"The means ought to be proportioned to the end; that every power ought to be commensurate with its object; that there ought to be no limitation of a power destined to effect a purpose which is itself incapable of limitation." –Federalist 31

“There is no surer way to destroy a government than to hamstring its ability to act decisively in defense of its people. The Alien Enemies Act is a blunt instrument—but in the right hands, it is a tool, not a tyranny. The problem is not the power; it is the person wielding it. Grant the executive the tools he needs, but make him answer for their use.”

Translation: Power should be used like a scalpel, not a campaign stunt.

George Washington

“The constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."

– Farewell Address, 1796

"The enforcement of national laws in defense of our domestic tranquility is a matter of solemn obligation. Yet, I would caution that any such power, however lawful in origin, must be exercised with the utmost restraint and respect for our national character. The republic was not established by rash hands, and it must not be maintained by them either. The world is watching not just what we do, but how we do it. "

Translation: You can use the law, but do it with a straight face and don’t make a mess of the furniture.

Thomas Jefferson

"Resolved ... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism — free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence" — Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785

"It begins, as tyranny always does, not with a shout, but with a shrug. A statute, passed in the anxious hour of our infancy, is now brandished not as a prudent relic but as a sovereign scepter. I will not inquire whether the deportations are legal—for legality, like parchment, can be made to wrap any indignity. I ask instead: is this beautiful? Is it republican? Is it virtuous? For liberty, once bruised beneath the boot of expedience, rarely walks upright again."

(He drifts off, eyes upward toward the imagined dome of the Pantheon.)

"There are those who will say we must act with strength. But strength, untethered from conscience, is but the twitching of a brute. Let us cultivate the vine of liberty, not prune it with a bayonet."

Translation: Sure, it’s legal. So was Caesar. How’d that turn out?

James Madison

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

— Attributed, often paraphrased from debates during the framing of the Constitution

"The Alien Enemies Act presumes a declared war. It presumes a defined enemy. It presumes legislative intent. While constitutional, it must be understood within the context of enumerated powers and republican constraint. It grants authority during ‘declared war’—not undeclared political vendettas. If we allow the Executive to declare a peacetime political disorder equivalent to war, we erode the separation of powers, and in time, the very fabric of our constitutional order. The structure of liberty cannot withstand such corrosion.”

Translation: The law exists. But if you use it this way, you might as well wipe your feet on the Constitution.

Analysis: The American Ideology in Action

Each Father names a different threat. For Adams, it’s national decay. For Jefferson, tyranny masked as legality. For Hamilton, loss of decisive leadership. For Washington, overreach masquerading as necessity. And for Madison? It’s the corruption of constitutional structure itself.

This is not just a clash of opinions—it’s a clash of ideological interpretations. The American Ideology accepts tension between values—liberty vs. equality, the Democratic Idea v. the National Idea. But the American Ideology is not a balancing act across an infinite spectrum. It contains clear guardrails.

And one such guardrail is the rule of law.

Rule of law is not merely a procedural nicety. It is the institutional expression of two core American Ideological values:

Republicanism, in which rule of law exists as a bulwark against tyranny (of majorities, as well as of a strong and energetic executive).
Moral Equality, which demands justice be blind, and process not subject to whim.

Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act tests these limits—not just politically, but ideologically.