In a 6–3 ruling that’s already reshaping the 2024 political battlefield, the Supreme Court blocked Donald Trump’s legal effort to use a dormant 18th-century wartime law to fast-track mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s plan hinged on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a statute originally created to allow the president to detain and deport foreign nationals during formal wars. According to a leaked internal memo obtained by The Guardian, Trump’s legal team believed it offered a loophole that could be exploited in today’s immigration fight.
A senior official from Trump’s America First Legal Foundation promoted the idea on X, writing that the law could be “activated under current national emergency conditions.” That post drew instant backlash from immigration lawyers and historians alike.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, warned that the statute “cannot be twisted into a tool for modern political expediency.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a concurring opinion, said the attempt echoed “xenophobic episodes we swore never to repeat.”
A chilling DHS blueprint leaked to Rolling Stone revealed that Trump aides had prepared “war-readiness operations” involving ICE and National Guard coordination. The document included color-coded targeting maps of Latino communities in Texas, Arizona, and California.
A former DHS official, who spoke anonymously to NBC News, confirmed that “logistics were already being mapped out for early 2025 raids,” assuming Trump reclaimed office.
In one emotional tweet, Senator Alex Padilla called the plan “a racist resurrection of dead law.” His full statement on the Senate floor, now going viral, compared the move to Japanese internment policies of WWII.
The Court’s decision followed mounting public pressure after a segment on MSNBC’s The ReidOut featured historian Erika Lee, who warned that using the Alien Enemies Act would “blow open authoritarian precedent.”
Immigrant rights group United We Dream rallied outside the Court with signs reading “We Are Not Your War Enemies.” Their livestream on Instagram drew over 150,000 viewers in 24 hours.
Trump, speaking at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, doubled down. “They’re protecting illegals more than Americans,” he said. His full comments were posted on RSBN’s Twitter feed, drawing both cheers and condemnation.
Legal scholars at ACS now warn that this may not be Trump’s last attempt to rework ancient laws for modern crackdowns. “This was just a test run,” wrote Yale Law Professor Reva Siegel in a widely-shared New Yorker essay.
Meanwhile, the ACLU has filed FOIA requests to uncover more documents related to ICE’s planning phase. They believe additional orders, emails, and deployment maps remain undisclosed.
Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill told The New York Times, “This was not about law. It was about weaponizing fear.” That quote now anchors the homepage of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
