March 17, 2025
The German American Internee Coalition strongly condemns the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 by President Trump and his administration to roundup and deport Venezuelan immigrants.
The Alien Enemies Act was last used in World War II to justify the imprisonment and deportation of thousands of German, Japanese, and Italians in the United States and Latin America without charges or legal representation. We, as former internees, their families and their allies, formed the German American Internee Coalition in 2005 to educate the public and support the families of former internees. Through introduction of the Wartime Treatment Study Act, we worked with members of Congress calling upon the US Government to recognize the civil and human rights abuses internees endured. This effort was not just to acknowledge the injustices of alien enemy interment, but importantly, to call upon our government not to repeat them. Yet here we are.
The Alien Enemies Act discriminates against our most basic human characteristics—where we were born and who we are. It is cruel and, at its root, it is unAmerican. Solely a wartime authority dating back centuries, the Trump administration seeks to use the Alien Enemies Act illegally precisely because it provides no due process protections for those the administration seeks to deport. The administration’s repeated use of the word invasion to describe those seeking shelter here, does not make it an invasion. Labeling a group of people “monsters,” does not make them so. Truth matters. The government has other, legal means, to deport individuals of concern without relying on the arcane Alien Enemies Act.
The Alien Enemies Act should be repealed. The United States has long been a beacon of hope, a land where freedom, equality and the rule of law are cherished values. It should not be a country where court rulings are flouted, families torn apart and people “disappeared.”