Trump’s Topsy-Turvy Immigration Tussle
April 21st, 2025
Ian Cheng
April 21st, 2025
Ian Cheng
This week, the new trend has been the ‘Speak your Mind Challenge,’ started by the MIND club at the University of South Carolina. In it, people nominated by their peers will dump a bucket of iced water on their heads. The Supreme Court themselves appeared to have followed suit, dumping cold water on President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport migrants out of the United States.
The President’s Action
Under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798, the president has full authority to remove any immigrant, even citizens, from the United States when national security is threatened, such as in the case of war or invasion. President Trump’s foundation for using this law came from the executive order, titled “Guaranteeing the States Protection against Invasion.” More specifically, Trump declared illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border an invasion, giving him reason to use this wartime law. On March 14th, the AEA was invoked to target the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua.
The Legal Response
On April 19th, the Supreme Court blocked the deportation of migrants under this same law. The people in question are 50 Venezuelans accused of being members of the gang. They were about to be flown out of the United States, likely to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), thanks to leader Nayib Bukele’s cordial relationship with President Trump. Now, the Venezuelans will now stay at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, where they await further action. Out of 261 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador, as of April 8th, 137 were removed under the AEA.
This marks a shift from the Supreme Court’s past position. On April 7th, SCOTUS allowed deportations through this same law to continue. The reasoning was that the migrants’ lawyers filed their case in Washington D.C, rather than where the detention center was located (Texas). One notable point is that all nine justices asserted that all immigrants must be given enough time to challenge their deportation before they are forced out of the United States. Crucially, this defends due process, a constitutionally protected legal principle that will protect the immigrants against potentially unfair governmental action.
Although the Supreme Court has already ruled, there are fears that President Trump will not comply with the decision. After hearing that planes filled with immigrants were leaving the United States, federal judge James E. Boasberg ordered that the three planes in question return. One was still on US soil, while the other two were already in the air. He also placed a block against deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. However, Boasberg was met with a statement from the Trump administration that his court has “no jurisdiction” over how the president handles foreign affairs. Those three planes wound up delivering more than 200 migrants to El Salvador.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also played a key role in the fight to keep migrants in the US. Right after the president first invoked the Alien Enemies Act, the group sued the Trump administration, attempting to slow mass deportations. Due process and reasonable law enforcement are championed under the union’s Immigrants Rights Project. With their 500 staff attorneys and 2,000 volunteer attorneys, they are truly a force to be reckoned with. On March 26th, a federal appeals court in Washington D.C maintained the prevention of deportations under the AEA (the same block that Judge Boasberg placed), marking a massive victory for the organization.
With that said, this turbulent legal case deals with just one of the many avenues Donald Trump has embarked on to pursue Republican immigration interests. Other things loom, such as the shutdown of the CBP One app, which denied around 30,000 migrants legal permission to stay in the United States. Several more battles in court are set to come, and it is up to courts all across the United States to deliver justice.
Extemp Analysis by Brogan Jones
Immigration is obviously a very topical issue in the United States right now, and is bound to be the subject of a lot of U.S. extemp questions in the coming months. Already, the majority of questions I’ve pulled at local and circuit tournaments have been surrounded around immigration. Seeing as most extemp questions are likely to be broader to allow more room for the extemper to make the speech their own, we’ll go with the first question Ian provided: Have efforts to stop Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts been successful?
AGD: There are several directions you could go with this. If you choose to be funny, I find that most Trump-centric speeches are good to begin with an impression or a joke, maybe some sort of ridiculous thing Trump has said in the past, and then connect that to the content of your speech. Another option is to use the AGD conveniently included in this article, about the USC Speak your Mind Challenge, or anything else topical that’s going on. However, with immigration being a more serious issue, my personal recommendation would be to go the serious route, perhaps describing the inhumane conditions of CECOT or another detention center for immigrants.
B: For background, you’ll want to explain what the “mass deportation efforts” that the question references actually are – how many illegal immigrants has the Trump administration deported or attempted to deport thus far?
SOS: Here’s where you’ll want to briefly mention the legal challenges to these efforts. I’d advise holding off on going into more detail for your three key points. Next, you’ll want to answer whether or not you believe they’ve been successful thus far.
If I got this question, I would want to get the most out of it content-wise, and I think the best way to do that is by saying that efforts have not been successful, but they have mitigated the damage of Trump’s deportations. I would then say that this is evident in three key ways…
P1: Halting of deportations
A U.S. judge successfully issued a ruling stating that the Trump administration must halt deportations and give immigrants the opportunity to challenge
Despite this mitigation of future deportations, efforts to reverse the damage that has already been done are failing, which leads me into my second key point…
P2: Failure to bring back deported immigrants
Despite the Supreme Court ruling that Trump must facilitate the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was deported to El Salvador, Trump has remained firm on keeping Garcia in El Salvador.
P3: Failure to legally define executive power
Use of Alien Enemies Act has not been officially struck down by the Supreme Court, despite legal challenges claiming the war time statute does not apply to illegal immigrants.
So, while efforts to stop mass deportations have temporarily succeeded in halting future deportations and mitigating more damage, they cannot be classified as “successful,” because they have failed at returning already deported immigrants and constraining/defining the Trump administration’s power.
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