Sally: Hey Judy, did you hear the news? Trump’s finally cracking down. He just deported a whole batch of Venezuelan gang members—called Tren de Aragua —to El Salvador. The Salvadoran president agreed to imprison them there. It’s about time we had a leader who’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep our communities safe.
Judy: No, I hadn’t heard. But I’ve got some news for you too. Did you hear that Pedro didn’t come home last night?
Sally: Wait, what? What do you mean?
Judy: He left for work like always—he’s a first-grade teacher, for crying out loud—and he never made it home.
Sally: That’s awful! What happened?
Judy: I talked to his wife Rosa. She said he was going to play basketball at the park with his cousin after work. He’s usually home by seven. But last night, nothing. No call. No text.
Sally: That doesn’t sound right. What happened next?
Judy: Turns out, ICE did a big raid at the park, rounding up suspected gang members.
Sally: Well, good! Those guys are dangerous! That’s exactly why Trump is taking action. We can’t have criminals running the streets!
Judy: Sally, Pedro is not a criminal. He’s an American citizen and a schoolteacher. He’s lived here for years. He has a wife, a mortgage, and two kids.
Sally: Okay, but if he’s innocent, he’ll be fine, right? I mean, he had to have had a hearing or something, right?
Judy: No. That’s the thing. He didn’t get a hearing. He didn’t get a lawyer. He was picked up, questioned, and put on a plane.
Sally: No way. That’s not how it works. There has to be some kind of process.
Judy: Normally, yes. But not under the Alien Enemies Act. It’s a law from 1798 that gives the president the power to arrest and deport non-citizens from “enemy nations”—no trial, no hearing, nothing. Trump is using it now to bypass the courts and remove people based on suspicion alone.
Sally: Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me that Pedro was deported just like that? Without a trial?
Judy: That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Hold on—my phone’s buzzing. It’s Rosa.
(Sue looks at her phone, reads the message.)
Judy: Oh my God. He’s on a plane to El Salvador. Along with a group of so-called “suspected gang members.”
Sally: But that doesn’t make sense! Surely, they wouldn’t send someone like Pedro away by mistake.
Judy: That’s the problem, Sally. When you give the government unchecked power, innocent people get caught in the net. No judge. No right to prove their innocence. Just gone.
Sally: Okay, but look—there are real criminals out there. You can’t deny that. The gangs, the drugs, the violence—it’s out of control. We need strong measures to clean up the streets.
Judy: I don’t disagree with you on that. Crime is a problem. Gang violence is a problem. But do we really want to throw out the Constitution just to get there? Do we really want to live in a country where the government can point a finger and say, “You. You’re gone,” without giving people a chance to defend themselves?
Sally: But there have to be safeguards, right? I mean, they have to be sure before deporting someone, don’t they?
Judy: No. That’s the whole issue. There are no checks, no second opinions. The government doesn’t have to prove anything. And now, Pedro—who has never been arrested, never been in trouble—is sitting on a plane, about to land in a country where he has no home, no job, and no way back.
Sally: Okay, but what happens next? Can we get him out?
Judy: Not easily. There’s an agreement between the Trump administration and the Salvadoran government. They’re taking these men and imprisoning them for a year in exchange for U.S. payments per person. Federal judges in the United States don’t have jurisdiction over the county of El Salvador.
Sally: That… that doesn’t sound right. What happens if someone is wrongly accused? Are they just stuck there? What’s going to happen to Pedro?
Judy: That’s exactly it. There’s no appeal. No judge to say, “Wait, we got the wrong guy.” No way to fix the mistake. And if they can do this to Pedro, what’s stopping them from doing it to you? To me? To anyone?
Sally: Damn… I hadn’t thought of it like that. I want our streets to be safe, but not at the cost of innocent lives being destroyed.
Judy: That’s the point, Sally. We all want the same thing—safety, security, strong communities. But we can’t achieve that by shredding due process.
Sally: I guess I just figured they were going after the worst of the worst. But now I see it—when there aren’t safeguards, the wrong people pay the price.
Judy: Exactly. The Constitution is there to protect all of us. Because once you let the government decide who gets rights and who doesn’t, it’s only a matter of time before they come for you too.
Mitch Jackson, Esq. | links
I wrote about the Alien Enemies Act in detail here.
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Update: 05-01-25: Texas Judge Strikes Down Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans. The ruling finds that the wartime law Venezuelan gang claims do not add up to an “invasion.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/texas-judge-trump-alien-enemies-act.html