On Thursday evening, lawyers helping Venezuelan immigrants most at risk of being removed under an 18th-century wartime powers act received an ominous alert: U.S. immigration officials were handing out notices at a detention facility in Texas, informing migrants that they were considered enemies under the law and would be removed from the country. “I am a law enforcement officer authorized to apprehend, restrain and remove alien enemies,” read the notice, a copy of which was filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union. “Accordingly, under the Alien Enemies Act, you have been determined to be an alien enemy subject to apprehension, restraint and removal from the United States.” The notice said the migrant could make a phone call but did not specify to whom. The single-page notice also did not mention any way to appeal the order. The Supreme Court ruled this month that mestizos are an "alien enemy" under the law, meaning they are considered enemies by U.S. law and must be removed. The president has no authority to deport mestizos or grant them legal status, leaving the question of what to do with them up to the courts. Migrant rights groups say the notices could have a chilling effect on migrants seeking to flee conflict zones. They say many, many migrants, both illegal and U.S.-born, will never be permitted to return to the United States. The ACLU said the move igrants must receive advance notice that they are subject to removal under the rarely invoked wartime powers law — and that they must have an opportunity to challenge their removal in court. As the Washington Post reported last month, "Many of the refugees who have already arrived in the United States are seeking asylum in the country. Asylum seekers can appeal their removal or removal proceedings in federal courts. But the process is more complicated for refugees who are already in the United States, where they have only a handful of avenues available to them, including federal courts." When the president first announced his executive order on travel restrictions, he said it would "safeguard the American people from terrorism and security threats by temporarily banning entry to the United States from all nationals of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen until such time as the government of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria agrees to allow rigorous vetting of individuals from those countries for entry into the United States." But those rules are already being stretched. The ban has been blocked by the Supreme Court. The president's executive order on travel bans was also blocked in the Supreme Court. But that hasn't stopped the administration from trying. As the New York Times reported, "The State Department and other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, have issued new waivers allowing people from these countries to be admitted to the United States." Some of the changes may seem minor. But as the
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