Defending deportations
Indian American lawyer Abhishek Kambli, who serves as a Deputy Associate Associate Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, was tasked by the Trump administration to defend the controversial use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for deporting illegal immigrants.
The Alien Enemies Act passed in 1798 during President John Adams’s administration was part of the Alien and Sedition Acts which gave the president authority to imprison or deport non-citizens from hostile nations during wartime. However, the Act has only been used three times in US history during wartime.
In a proclamation issued on March 15, Trump invoked the 18th-century law to protect the American people from ‘the devastating effects’ of what he called an invasion perpetrated by Venezuelan nationals suspected of being members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a designated terrorist organization. The proclamation accused TdA of unlawfully infiltrating the US by engaging in mass illegal migration, conducting irregular warfare, and undertaking hostile actions in the country. It claimed that TdA is a multinational crime organization aligned with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela. The directive authorizes the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, consistent with applicable law, to detain or deport illegal migrants.
The administration’s move is now being challenged in court. On March 15, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a case on behalf of five Venezuelan migrants at risk of being deported. In an emergency hearing federal judge Judge US District Judge James E. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order to block the deportation flights using the Alien Enemies Act and to turn around any planes in the air.
Under Fire
Kambli, a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School who joined the US Department of Justice in February 2025, is now at the center of one of the most acrimonious legal battles in the country. The conservative Indian American attorney repeatedly refused to answer questions from Judge Boasberg about whether the White House had violated an order to temporarily halt deportations under the 18th-century law.
Citing security and diplomatic concerns, Kambli refused to provide details on the flights saying he was authorized to provide only limited information.
Kambli came under fire from Boasberg who discredited Kambli’s argument that the deportation flights could not return because they were already in international waters. Boasberg also called Kambli’s defense to disregard an oral directive over the written ruling, “a stretch.”
Several advocacy groups are calling the administration’s actions an abuse of power. The Brennan Center for Justice referred to the Act as a dangerous wartime law cautioning that it could be used for mass deportations in the absence of war.
In a statement, the Asian Law Caucus warned that the last time the Act was used was to incarcerate people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent in World War II camps and justify abducting and incarcerating Japanese Americans en masse. In 1983, the Asian Law Caucus was part of Fred Korematsu’s coram nobis legal team to overturn criminal convictions based on false claims underlying the military’s justification for the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) called on the administration to comply fully with the temporary restraining order and halt any deportations under the proposed authority of the Alien Enemies Act. “The alleged blatant disregard for Judge Boasberg’s orders to turn the plane carrying deportees around cannot be tolerated in a nation of laws,” it said.
A dangerous act
The ALC said that using the Act was a dangerous attack on the American system of checks and balances. “Federal agencies have openly defied this judicial order – holding themselves as above the law and answerable to no one,” it added.
Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus said, “The administration has defied at least two federal court orders to evade due process at the expense of working people, aspiring citizens, and all of our civil rights. When government agencies deliberately ignore court orders, they undermine the very foundation of our democracy. Family members and neighbors are being torn from their homes and communities despite judges ruling to protect them. No administration should be allowed to pick and choose which laws and court orders it follows.”
“We stand in solidarity with the families and communities targeted by President Trump’s regime that is flouting the law to amass more power,” said Kohli.
“There is no question: Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegal.”