In his latest move to clamp down on illegal immigration and immigration more broadly, President Trump has filed a presidential action invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a seldom-used law that gives the president authority to detain or deport nationals of an enemy nation during wartime. It’s only the fourth time in American history a president has used the act — and the first since World War II.
Several.
Not sanctioned by Congress since they’ve abdicated their duties entirely…
But, yes, several.
Then the answer is no. That’s what being a nation of laws means. Doesn’t matter if Congress has abdicated their duties. No formal declaration of war, no new powers.
Now likely what you mean is that we’ve left the notion that we are a nation of laws, then yes. Laws have stopped having any kind of meaning for the President.
This law requires them to be sanctioned by Congress. It can’t just be a “special military operation” like Iraq was.
That requires the rest of the government, namely Congress to stop the President from directing his branch of government break the law. And they’ve shown no intention of starting to do that.
The courts have put a pause on this for now at least. They don’t have a mechanism of enforcement though, so theoretically Trump can just ignore them. We’ll have to wait and see what they do I guess. Hopefully they aren’t willing to directly contradict the courts yet.