The Detainees of Crystal City

To justify mass deportations, President Trump has invoked an old wartime law: the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The Alien Enemies Act was last used after America’s entry into World War II. In response to the Axis countries’ detainment of Americans who were deemed potential spies, the Roosevelt Administration came up with an elaborate plan: find and arrest Germans, Japanese and Italians living in Latin America and bring them to internment camps in the U.S. The government would use them to exchange for American prisoners of war.

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