04 Apr Calling on President Trump to rescind his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act
As survivors and descendants, as well as supporters and friends, of those whose fundamental constitutional and human rights were violated during World War II due to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, we are opposed to the administration’s invocation of this outdated and discriminatory wartime law. The Alien Enemies Act was last used to restrict, apprehend, and indefinitely detain about 31,000 men, women, and children of German, Italian, and Japanese ancestry — both immigrant residents and citizens — of the U.S. and 18 Latin American nations. Of these, over 4,800 were thrust into the war zones of Asia and Europe in prisoner exchanges for U.S. and Latin American citizens held by the Axis nations.
When the reach of U.S. detention policies was extended by Executive Order 9066 to incarcerate all U.S. citizens as well as noncitizens of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast, the lives of about 150,000 human beings in total, along with the communities from which they were taken, were devastated Families were profiled by national origin, ancestry, and race; scapegoated as a threat to national security; and classified as potentially “dangerous enemy aliens.” Government policies and actions arising from the Alien Enemies Act abrogated the most basic human rights of all persons — regardless of their citizenship or immigration status — to due process and equality before the law.
The Alien Enemies Act is being resurrected and weaponized, but now during peacetime and against manufactured enemy “invaders”: Venezuelans immigrants. We are opposed to the administration’s blanket statement that immigrants pose a threat to national security, as well as its actions to criminalize, detain, and deport immigrants without due process of law or evidence of wrongdoing.
No group should suffer the violations and trauma that our families endured under the Alien Enemies Act. We call on President Trump to rescind his invocation of this Act and we urge Congress and the nation to learn from past government abuse — by repealing the Alien Enemies Act once and for all. We stand in solidarity with Venezuelan and immigrant communities. We are neighbors, not enemies.