U.S Immigration after the Alien Enemies Act Invocation

Imagine being accused of being a criminal, an invader, a violent person, or someone from filth. Imagine being accused of despicable things just because of your heritage.

Imagine being a hard worker, relying on no one but yourself to survive, and the majority of your country hates you because a big mouth turned big political figure convinced them a lie was truth.

Well, get ready to clutch your pearls. This is the American reality. No Dream, little hope.

The fact is that only a small fraction of immigrants into the United States of America have criminal or violent histories. The current administration has driven a hard campaign to convince Americans that the majority of immigrants are "rapists" and "drug dealers" or simply from "shithole countries."

The majority of immigrants are family members, friends, refugees, asylum seekers, and most importantly, human. Yet, the current administration only sees color, not people.

Photo credit: Center for American Progress

Immigration in the Federal Level

They were driving this campaign so hard, that on March 15, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed the Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, intending to track down members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in the United States. 

CNN's display of Donald Trump and District Judge Boasberg.

What this invocation failed to consider is that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is a wartime document. It was passed as a preparatory action for an anticipated war with France. The document, according to the National Archives, "tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech critical of the government."

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the invocation the first time. 

On April 8, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the block on deportations with limitations. 

Then SCOTUS decided to undo their controversial decision on April 20.

In only a few weeks, between the bouncing of active and inactive Alien Enemies Act, the Immigration and Customs Agency locked into mass deportations that political analysts in news broadcasts and social media expected the United States federal government couldn't afford. 

Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE
on Tuesday, March 25.
Photo credit: CNN

Notably, documented immigrants (Visa holders, green card holders, residents) and international students were arrested by plainclothes ICE agents who failed to identify themselves until after intimidating or already placing cuffs on migrants. 

For instance, two of the most bold arrests were of Tufts international student Rumeysa Ozturk in Massachusetts and Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Both were following what was expected of them. 

Ozturk, a Turkish national going to break her fast during the religious month of Ramadan, was "arrested and physically restrained" by six plainclothes officers who failed to show identification until the PhD student was restrained. There were no charges filed against Ozturk, yet she was still sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana. 

She is just one student that were, in a way, ambushed.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a husband and father to three children. There were allegations, which have since dropped, that Garcia was affiliated with MS13, a criminal organization that has a reach throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Trump administration sent Garcia to El Salvador without due process or contact with his family. The government has yet to make attempts to retrieve him despite claiming the initial deportation was an "administrative error."

He is just one father of many arrested, isolated from family.

No move to comply with multiple court orders by U.S district judges has been made, creating tensions in the judiciary branch of government for the executive branch's disregard for cheques and balances, established to avoid overreaches of power such as this. 

It affects local proceedings too. 

So how might the Alien Enemies Act affect you?

Oh, were you not aware? Yes, it can affect anyone. The most affected people are those who are perceived as people of color. 

Although most frequent in border control and customs for incoming international travelers, travelers within the United States have noticed a jump in security agents seizing and searching contents of personal phones. 

In early March 2025, a Lebanese physician and assistant professor at Brown University, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, was flagged by U.S Border Control. Her visa was revoked after the content of her phone was reviewed and she was deported back to Lebanon.

Other immigrants on visa have also faced privacy violations. Some, like a Columbia Ph.D. student, left for Canada after ICE raided her apartment after seeing pro-Palestinian activity on her social media and participating in campus protests. 

Khalil and his wife, Dr. Abdalla, take a selfie.
Photo credit: Drop Site News

A fellow student, Mahmoud Khalil, was also searched for due to pro-Palestinian protest activity. Khalil was actually a protest leader and is now held in a nearby Louisiana immigration detention to Rumeysa Ozturk. Senators are calling Khalil's detention an "abuse of our nation's immigration laws."

Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, has since given birth to their son. There was a formal petition to ICE for Khalil's release to attend the birth.

It was denied.

Dr. Abdalla remains an advocate for Khalil, both as wife and mother to their new son. Although the announcement of her son's birth has created a new conversation of new parents and ICE proceedings, Dr. Abdalla did not release her son's name or give into emotion publicly and redirected focus to the legal battle against ICE.

I could go on.

I should not be able to. 

Yet I could. I wish I did not have to.

The reality is that this is a human rights issue.

It's not a matter of us versus them when it comes to immigration. It's a division of people in a country made by immigrants, built on their backs. 

Yet, their suffering is erased, unheard, forgotten. 

Imagine being an immigrant. Imagine being unwanted. Imagine being looked at like you are lesser than.

Photo credit: Tax Outreach

The immigrants in the ICE facilities throughout the nation don't have to imagine. They live with the humiliation of being in ICE custody. They are not allowed to be people despite their human and American right to due process.

The worst part about it is that some sources chose to report on the immigration crisis in an angle of incoming migrants, demonizing them. The real battle is within the United States of America as it divides day by day.

The real battle is Americans opening their mind and reading multiple sources, whether they agree or not. The American Dream is gone. 

It's up to the people within the U.S. to rebuild the nation, not just citizens. It's a matter of learning from history and making a point to stand against going back decades of progress. 

As it stands, the "American way" is turning into a white ideal. 

The U.S. Declaration of Independence stands as a testament to what should be.

The Founding Fathers made clear in their declaration through Congress on July 4, 1776 what they expected of a new nation. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

When talking about immigration, think about the unalienable rights the People of United States of America are granted. Think about how every person is granted a birthright to Life, to Liberty, to the pursuit of Happiness. 

Who are we to deny our neighbors in the world their unalienable rights? Who are we to deny the Founding Fathers' vision of progress and guaranteed American rights? 

A Favorite Writer

If anyone knew me, they would know I don't have a favorite writer. As a reader, I've read a range of genres: fantasy, fiction, non-fiction, classics, romances, comedies. 

I feel it's the greatest sin to have a singular favorite.

Many people don't like that I can't come up with a singular favorite. Their faces tell me that it irritates them. I'm not trying to be difficult. I have writers I really enjoy and would return to read from.

But a favorite? The writer I would bend over backward for?

Impossible. I don't have one. I can't have one on principle as a reader.

I will say, a writer I've enjoyed is Ronan Farrow. He's a journalist, utilizing multiple platforms, and a documentarian. 

His reporting has a certain flow to it. The first long-form writing of his I really sat down and read was Catch and Kill. I actually attended his speaking event at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts and was able to meet him after, getting my copy of Catch and Kill signed.

Catch and Kill book cover

As a student journalist, it was fascinating to be able to actually see a famous journalist in person while getting his book signed.

It was also fascinating to find someone had made their mark despite being held back by their past.

Farrow was born to Mia Farrow, an actress, and to Woody Allen, a writer and director. The younger Farrow's connection to Woody Allen was creating a bit of a roadblock to his journalistic reporting on disgraced director and former co-chairman of MiraMax, Harvey Weinstein. 

Allen and Weinstein both have sexual abuse allegations against them. 

Allen still claims innocence in his case, Farrow vs Allen, as seen in this BBC article. (The Farrow in this case being Farrow's sister, Dylan Farrow, who alleges Allen molested her in 1992 when she was only seven.)Weinstein has a mess of allegations against him. In Catch and Kill, both in the book format and the podcast format (which acts as an expansion on the book), Farrow goes over these allegations and the complexity of trying to unweave the web surrounding Weinstein. 

Farrow explains that the publication he was working with at the time he was first investigating the stories had "caught" his story and, without him knowing, "killed it." In journalism, the term "catch and kill" means that a story has been grabbed, or caught, before publication and blocked, or killed, oftentimes temporarily. In Farrow's case, under the initial publication, the killed story was permanent. 

So Farrow left and published his article elsewhere. He wrote about his journalistic investigation into Weinstein here at The New Yorker.

His career skyrocketed after. Farrow has since made documentary deals, gone on talk shows, and overall established himself as one of the top investigative journalists at the time. He even investigates surveillance tactics in an HBO documentary, Surveilled.

Surveilled, Farrow's HBO documentary, cover.

It's not that I don't have a single favorite writer. It's that I have a favorite style of writing and learning. If it's slow or over-explained content, my interest drops. I don't like the writer's approach. 

Ronan has an approach to his investigations I can read and/or listen to. I can even listen to his podcast in the background, keeping up with new individuals that are brought on. His books are well-explained and don't drench the common reader in the jargon and general mumbo jumbo of a hyper-specific topic.

Writing isn't about black on white words. There's a certain flair to it and there's a range of tactics for it. I just have a favorite style of writing, which is mostly conversational with descriptions that leave a little to the imagination to put together.

So, giving Ronan Farrow's writing and reporting a chance wouldn't hurt.