Trump would twist unjust law; Congress should repeal it

By Katherine Yon Ebright / For the Chicago Tribune

President-elect Donald Trump is getting ready to repeat a shameful mistake from our nation’s history. As part of his plans for mass deportation, Trump has promised to dust off the Alien Enemies Act, last used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in World War II to hold 31,000 noncitizens of Japanese, German and Italian descent in internment camps based on their ancestry.

Trump and his advisers claim that the same law would permit the detention and deportation of millions of noncitizens currently in the United States. Congress and the courts can and should stop him.

Enacted in 1798, the Alien Enemies Act allows the president, during a declared war or an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” by a foreign government, to summarily detain and deport noncitizens who were born in enemy nations.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which killed more than 2,400 Americans, opened the door for Roosevelt to proclaim an invasion and invoke the law. Within 24 hours, more than 1,000 noncitizens of Japanese descent had been detained. Many more would follow; along with an even larger number of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent, detained under a separate legal authority.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-trump-would-twist-unjust-law-congress-should-repeal-it/