Trump Set to Invoke ‘Alien Enemies Act’ to Deal with Migrant Invasion, Drug Cartels
by Warner Todd Huston
In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump is set to invoke the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 as his chief tool to confront the invasion of illegal migrants and the crimes committed by the Mexican drug cartels.
Trump also stated that he will designate the drug cartels as terrorist organizations in conjunction with invoking the AEA.
“Under the orders I sign today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations,” Trump said in a statement. “And by invoking the alien enemies act of 1798 I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
Trump’s use of the act will be novel in that the U.S. is not technically “at war” with the cartels and the invasion of illegal migrants. But citing it to form the basis of his actions to secure the southern border would serve to lend his actions a legality that will not be so easily defeated by activists for lawbreaking illegals and the lawsuits they will file in the coming weeks and months.
The president’s suggestion of using the AEA is not a sudden development. He had made mention of the idea at several of his rallies during the 2024 campaign. For instance, at an October rally in Coachella, California, he said, “I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.”
The Republican Party also cited the act in its official 2024 platform in which the GOP said it should be used as the basis to “remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of Illegal Alien gang violence once and for all.”