Professor Chin Talks to ABC10 About Trump Invoking Alien Enemies Act

Reporter Gurajpal Sangha of Sacramento’s ABC10 news interviewed Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin on March 13 about President Donald Trump’s then-imminent invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.

Passed in 1798, the act has only been used during times of declared war, Chin said, and “we do not have any citizens or nationals of foreign states that we have declared war against.”

Trump’s subsequent March 15 proclamation invoking the act specifically targeted Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization. Immigration officers deported about 250 alleged members of the gang around the same time a federal judge issued March 15 emergency orders to stop the administration from using wartime powers to deport people. The conflict has increased tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary.

There are legal alternatives to the Alien Enemies Act, Chin told ABC10.

“If there is somebody here, without authorization, who is committing crimes, who's a member of a cartel or whatever, there are legal processes established by Congress to detain and deport them,” he said.

Chin is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and holder of the Edward L. Barrett Jr. Endowed Chair at UC Davis School of Law. He is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.