Alien Enemies Act, Legal US Immigrants Denied Entry, Deadly Storm System

Summary

Up First from NPR – March 17, 2025

NPR's Up First delivers the three most significant news stories of the day, offering in-depth reporting and analysis in a concise format. In the March 17, 2025 episode, hosts Layla Fadel and A. Martinez delve into three pressing issues: the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act by the Trump administration, legal U.S. immigrants facing wrongful denials of entry, and a devastating storm system wreaking havoc across the Midwest and South.

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1. Trump Administration's Use of the Alien Enemies Act

The episode opens with a critical examination of the Trump administration's recent actions deporting hundreds of individuals alleged to be Venezuelan gang members. This move has sparked significant concern among civil liberties advocates who argue that the administration is misusing a long-forgotten wartime law.

Key Points:

• Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act: President Trump employed the Alien Enemies Act, a statute dating back to 1798, to deport individuals without the typical due process. This law was historically reserved for wartime scenarios, making its application in peacetime and against alleged gang members unprecedented.

  "It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against the gang."
  — Adrian Florido, NPR

• Deportations and Legal Challenges: Approximately 300 individuals were deported to El Salvador instead of Venezuela. The deportations were intended to place these individuals behind bars, as stated by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. However, a federal judge issued an emergency order to halt these deportations, citing the misuse of the law.

  "The Alien Enemies act cannot be used during peacetime for regular immigration enforcement."
  — Carolyn Levitt, NPR

• Civil Liberties Concerns: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) swiftly sued to block the deportations, leading Judge James Boasberg to temporarily halt the actions. Despite this, some deportations proceeded, raising questions about compliance with judicial orders.

  "Congress was very clear in the statute that it can only be used against a foreign government or foreign nation."
  — Adrian Florido, NPR

• Lack of Transparency: The administration has not disclosed specific details or evidence to substantiate the claims that these individuals are affiliated with the Aragua Prison gang. Families of the deported individuals have voiced fears that their loved ones may have been wrongly targeted.

  "The ACLU acted fast because once the US has turned someone over to a foreign government, federal courts lose jurisdiction."
  — Carolyn Levitt, NPR

Conclusion: The episode underscores the alarming precedent set by the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, highlighting the potential for abuse of wartime powers in civilian contexts and the ongoing legal battles to safeguard civil liberties.

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2. Legal U.S. Immigrants Denied Entry

The discussion shifts to troubling instances where legally residing immigrants in the U.S. have been wrongfully detained and deported, raising alarms about an intensified immigration crackdown.

Key Cases:

• Rasha Allaway – Doctor Sent Back to Lebanon: Rasha Allaway, a kidney transplant doctor on an H1B visa, was forcibly returned to Lebanon despite possessing valid legal status. Her detainment at Boston's Logan Airport lasted 36 hours, during which her phone was confiscated. Legal efforts to halt her deportation were reportedly ignored, leading to her removal.

  "Officials, quote, willfully disobeyed the judge's order and sent her back anyway."
  — Nayib Bukele, NPR

• Fabian Schmidt – German-Born Green Card Holder Detained: Fabian Schmidt faced detainment upon attempting to re-enter the U.S. after a trip to Europe. Despite holding a green card, Schmidt was detained due to past misdemeanor drug and DUI charges. His family contends that he never received court notices, leading to his unwarranted detention and mistreatment, including violent interrogation practices.

  "He had to go and be stripped naked and was showered by two officers."
  — Carolyn Levitt, NPR

Public Reaction and Administrative Stance:

The Trump administration maintains that stringent measures are necessary to prevent individuals with criminal backgrounds from re-entering the country. However, these cases have ignited protests and criticisms, particularly in Boston, where local sentiment opposes the administration's aggressive immigration policies.

"This is seen as Trump making good on one of his central campaign promises or threats."
— Nayib Bukele, NPR

Conclusion: These incidents reveal a troubling pattern of legal immigrants facing unjust deportations, exacerbating fears of an overreaching immigration enforcement agenda that disregards individual rights and due process.

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3. Devastating Storm System Hits Midwest and South

The final segment covers a severe storm system that swept through the Midwest and South over the weekend, causing widespread destruction, fatalities, and ongoing recovery efforts.

Impact and Damage:

• Tornadoes and High Winds: The storm spawned deadly tornadoes across states like Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves reported six fatalities due to tornadoes, while Missouri saw 12 deaths and extensive property damage.

  "Mississippians in times like these, step up and do what is necessary to take care of our friends and our neighbors."
  — Nayib Bukele, NPR

• Wildfires and Dust Storms: Concurrently, hurricane-force winds in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas ignited over 130 wildfires and triggered massive dust storms. These conditions led to hazardous driving situations, resulting in multi-vehicle pile-ups and additional fatalities.

  "Officials say there's more than 42,000 acres were burning from 36 different wildfires."
  — Adrian Florido, NPR

Recovery Efforts:

President Trump has pledged support for affected states, with National Guard troops deployed to the hardest-hit areas. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been actively involved in assessing the damage and coordinating relief efforts.

"Our goal is to help and aid the local folks on the ground, take care of people. We'll worry about the paperwork later."
— Nayib Bukele, NPR

Future Outlook:

As tornado season continues, forecasters warn of the potential for more severe weather events in the coming weeks, emphasizing the need for ongoing preparedness and resilience.

Conclusion: The storm system’s extensive impact underscores the vulnerability of the Midwest and South to extreme weather events, highlighting the critical importance of efficient disaster response and long-term recovery strategies.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Up First provides a comprehensive overview of significant national issues, from contentious immigration policies and their human impact to the challenges posed by natural disasters. Through expert interviews and firsthand accounts, NPR offers listeners a nuanced understanding of these complex topics, emphasizing the interplay between governmental actions, legal frameworks, and societal responses.

For more detailed coverage, listeners are encouraged to explore NPR’s Morning Edition, which offers expanded discussions and analyses on the day’s top stories.

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Notable Quotes:

• "It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against the gang."
  — Adrian Florido, NPR [04:46]

• "The Alien Enemies act cannot be used during peacetime for regular immigration enforcement."
  — Carolyn Levitt, NPR [04:32]

• "Mississippians in times like these, step up and do what is necessary to take care of our friends and our neighbors."
  — Nayib Bukele, NPR [10:34]

---

Stay Informed:

Subscribe to Up First and support your local NPR station at donate.npr.org. For an ad-free experience, consider subscribing to Up First+ plus.npr.org/upfirst.

Transcript

[Layla Faldil]

Hello? Now a Martinez is ignoring me.

[A. Martinez]

Do I have, do I have to hear her?

[Layla Faldil]

You're so mean. A deadly storm system has moved offshore after tearing through the Midwest and South over the weekend.

[A. Martinez]

Dozens of people died when tornadoes and high winds knocked out power and leveled homes and buildings. What will recovery look like?

[Layla Faldil]

I'm Layla Faldil with a Martinez and this is up first from NPR News. The Trump administration deports hundreds of people who they accuse of being Venezuelan gang members using an obscure wartime law. Civil liberties advocates are raising a red flag.

[Adrian Florido]

It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against the gang.

[Layla Faldil]

A judge ordered the deportations to be stopped immediately, but some still happened. Why?

[A. Martinez]

And two people living in the US Legally say they were detained and mistreated by US Immigration officials when they tried to re enter the countries. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

[Tovia Smith]

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[Ryland Barton]

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[A. Martinez]

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people who it accuses of being Venezuelan gang members.

[Layla Faldil]

This weekend they were flown not to Venezuela, but to El Salvador. In an extraordinary move, President Trump relied on a rarely used law from more than 200 years ago to quickly expel them without hearings or due process. A federal judge is trying to stop this.

[A. Martinez]

We're joined now by NPR's Adrian Florido. So let's start off with what the Trump administration used to justify their actions.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Well, on Saturday, a President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act. It is a law from 1798 that authorizes summarily detaining or deporting citizens of an enemy nation. This is a wartime law. We are not at war with Venezuela. But in his order, Trump described Venezuela's trend Aragua Prison gang as a force invading the US and hours later, hundreds of immigrants his administration claims are in that gang had been deported to El Salvador. Here's White House press Secretary Carolyn Levitt on Fox News.

[Nayib Bukele]

The president invoked this authority to deport.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Nearly 300 of them who are now.

[Ryland Barton]

In El Salvador where they will be.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American communities. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said that he would lock them up for a year, and he released photos of shackled men being unloaded from planes and having their heads shaved.

[A. Martinez]

Yeah, the ACLU sued to stop these deportations and a federal judge agreed to temporarily block them. But what happened?

[Carolyn Levitt]

Yeah, it was an emergency suit from the ACLU on Saturday, and Judge James Boasberg of the federal District Court in D.C. said that he didn't think the Alien Enemies act authorized the immediate deportations. He told the government to turn back any planes that might already be in the air. But that didn't happen. And it's not clear if the planes had already landed in El Salvador or if officials chose not to divert them back to the U.S. el Salvador's president, who takes pride in flouting due process in his crime crackdowns, mocked the judge's order on social media, writing, oopsie, too late. Venezuela does not regularly accept deportation flights from the usa. So Bukele said that he had struck a deal with the US to imprison these deportees for a fee.

[A. Martinez]

And tell us more about the concerns civil liberties advocates are raising over the president's use of this law.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Well, the Alien Enemies act has only been used three times before, the last time during World War II when the government used it to detain Japanese, German and Italian citizens. League alert. The ACLU's attorney in this lawsuit told NPR Trump is misusing the law.

[Adrian Florido]

The Alien Enemies act cannot be used during peacetime for regular immigration enforcement. Congress was very clear in the statute that it can only be used against a foreign government or foreign nation. It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against the gang.

[Carolyn Levitt]

He says the ACLU acted fast because once the US has turned someone over to a foreign government, federal courts lose jurisdiction. A judge can't order El Salvador to send people back.

[A. Martinez]

Now, the people who were deported, who the Trump administration claims are gang members, do we really know if they are Trende Arawa members?

[Carolyn Levitt]

We don't know who most of them are. The Trump administration hasn't named them, hasn't offered evidence to back up its claim. Since yesterday, some families of men who were in immigration detention in the US have spoken out to say they fear their loved ones may have been in this group and that they are not gang members.

[A. Martinez]

So what happens now?

[Carolyn Levitt]

Well, the Trump administration has appealed the judge's order temporarily blocking deportations under the law. The ACLU says it will fight this vigorously. They insist there is huge danger in allowing the president to invoke wartime authorities during peacetime, that it sets a dangerous precedent.

[A. Martinez]

All right. That's NPR's Adrian Florido. Thanks a lot.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Thank you. A.

[A. Martinez]

A federal judge in Boston has scheduled a hearing this morning about what he calls serious allegations that Customs and Border Protection officials disobeyed his court order.

[Layla Faldil]

A doctor who was legally working in the US has been sent back to Leban. And in a separate case, a German born green card holder is being detained and that's raising concerns about an immigration crackdown.

[A. Martinez]

In Boston, NPR's Tovia Smith has been following the story. So first bring us up to date on the case of the doctor who has returned to Lebanon, whose case is being heard in court this morning.

[Nayib Bukele]

Yeah, this is about Rasha Allaway, a kidney transplant doctor at a Brown University affiliated medical group. She was here on an H1B visa, that's the one meant for highly specialized workers. And she went to visit family in Lebanon. And when she returned, she was detained for 36 hours at Boston's Logan Airport and she had her phone taken from her, according to her cousin. Her cousin is the one who got the federal court order barring officials from sending her back. Apparently even her lawyers made a frantic call to the airport control tower trying to stop the plane she was on. But they say officials, quote, willfully disobeyed the judge's order and sent her back anyway. And we expect to learn more shortly when government officials appear in court this morning. But so far we got just a preview from a spokesperson who said that officials use rigorous screening to keep threats out of the country is how they put it.

[A. Martinez]

Okay, so now the separate case of the German born green card holder, that's a different situation.

[Nayib Bukele]

Yeah. In this case, Fabian Schmidt was detained for days when he tried to return to Logan Airport from a trip to Europe, according to his family and officials suggest it's because he faced misdemeanor drug and DUI charges about a decade ago and he was a no show for a court hearing on his case. His family says that's because he never got the notice. But in this case also, relatives say that Schmidt was mistreated in custody. Violently interrogated was how his mother put it when she spoke to GBH reporter Sarah Benicourt.

[Carolyn Levitt]

He had to go and be stripped.

[Nayib Bukele]

Naked and was showered by two officers.

[Carolyn Levitt]

With ice cold water and was interrogated again.

[Nayib Bukele]

Officials say the claims are, quote, blatantly false without, however, saying specifically which claims. And they add, quote, when an individual is found with drug related charges and tries to reenter the country, officers will take proper action, they said.

[Adrian Florido]

Yeah.

[A. Martinez]

And Sylvia, all this comes as the Trump administration has been promising to take a hard line on immigration in general. What kind of reaction are you seeing to all of this in Boston?

[Nayib Bukele]

Yeah, this is being seen as Trump making good on one of his central campaign promises or threats, however you see it. And this was reiterated, by the way, by border czar Tom Homan just a few weeks ago when he specifically called out Boston for vowing to not help ICE enforcement officers.

[A. Martinez]

I'm coming to Boston.

[Nayib Bukele]

I'm bringing hell with me. Meantime, those who oppose the Trump administration's hardline stance are also fired up. There's a protest planned for this evening to support the doctor who was sent back to Lebanon. As, of course, there have been other protests, including many around the nation this weekend in support of the Colombia student Mahmoud Khalil. He was taken into custody by officials who say his campus protest activities basically amount to a national security threat because they, quote, align with Hamas, which is a U.S. designated terrorist group.

[A. Martinez]

All right, that's NPR's Tovia Smith. Tovia, thanks.

[Nayib Bukele]

Thank you.

[A. Martinez]

At least three dozen people are dead after severe weather sparked tornadoes, dust storms, wildfires and heavy rainfall across the south and Midwest over the weekend.

[Layla Faldil]

The storms continue to rattle the east coast overnight but have largely moved offshore. Residents across the country are still taking stock of the damage.

[A. Martinez]

NPR's Ryland Barton has been following this. So tell us what happened over the weekend.

[Adrian Florido]

Yeah, so this really volatile storm system affected a huge swath of the country that created a trail of destruction from Kansas and Oklahoma down to Texas and then over east to Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. In the east side on Friday and Saturday, the system dropped baseball sized hail in some places, produced dozens deadly tornadoes. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said that six people were killed in tornadoes there. Speaking on Sunday, he promised a quick response.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Mississippians in times like these, step up.

[Nayib Bukele]

And do what is necessary to take care of our friends and our neighbors. And that makes me proud to be a Mississippian.

[Adrian Florido]

Also, 12 people died in Missouri, where Governor Mike Cajo said yesterday that hundreds of homes, schools and businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. In Arkansas, the National Weather Service said that damage from two of the tornadoes there showed they were likely F4. That's the second strongest class of tornadoes with one of them estimated to have a peak wind of 170 miles an hour. The last time that happened on the same day in the state was 1997. First responders across the region are still working to clear debris, restore power to homes and eventually distribute supplies for recovery. Yeah.

[A. Martinez]

Now tell us about the high wind and wildfires that took place on the western side of the area affected by the storm.

[Adrian Florido]

Right. So Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, there were hurricane force winds. They created dust storms and wildfires. On Friday, eight people died in a 71 vehicle pile up in Kansas. That was after a dust storm suddenly reduced visibility to near zero. That closed Interstate 70 for over 24 hours. Another three people were killed in dust storm related crashes in Amarillo in the Texas panhandle. In Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt said that high winds stoked more than 130 fires across the state, killing four and damaging or destroying nearly 400 homes. And in Texas on Sunday, officials say there's more than 42,000 acres were burning from 36 different wildfires, including a nearly 10,000 acre wildfire near Fredericksburg in central Texas. The threat of fires is expected to continue there into the next week.

[A. Martinez]

Wow. So that's all of that's a lot. What does recovery look like?

[Adrian Florido]

So the process is really just starting. President Trump said on his Truth Social account yesterday that he's monitoring the storm damage and that he and first lady Melania Trump are praying for everyone impacted. He promised to assist state and local officials in the recovery. And he said National Guard troops were already deployed to Arkansas where the most powerful tornadoes took place. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders surveyed damage there Saturday.

[Nayib Bukele]

Our goal is to help and aid the local folks on the ground, take care of people. We'll worry about the paperwork later.

[Adrian Florido]

This is just the beginning of tornado season and more severe weather could be on its way in the next several weeks.

[A. Martinez]

That's NPR's Ryland Barton. Ryland, thanks.

[Adrian Florido]

Thank you.

[A. Martinez]

And that's up first for Monday, March 17th. I'm A. Martinez.

[Layla Faldil]

And I'm Layla Faldela. Thanks for listening to up first. You can find more in depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and lots more on NPR's Morning Edition. That's the radio show that Steve Inskeep, Michelle Martin a Martinez and I host. Find Morning Edition on your local NPR.

[A. Martinez]

[e-mail] Today's episode of Upburst was edited by Kevin Drew, Luis Clemens, Alice Wolfley and Janayah Williams. It was produced by Zia Butch, Destiny Adams, Zachary Coleman and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is David Greenberg. Join us again tomorrow.

[Ryland Barton]

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