The video is really chilling. And this should matter to every single American. Okay, first of all the president doesn’t need the Alien Enemies Act in order to remove from this country. People who pose a threat to the nation, people who have engaged in criminal behavior or who have coordinated with terrorist groups, he has that power under existing law to remove from the country non-citizens. So he doesn’t need this authority.
What he is trying to do is put America on a war footing. This is an act that has only been exercised three times in American history. During the war of 1812, during the First World War, and during the Second World War. It is a wartime authority, and what you really worry about is the president continuing to move forward in exercising wartime powers in order to suspend additional elements of the constitution.
He, of course, has shown affection for something called the Insurrection Act, which would put the military in charge of everyday law enforcement in this country.
You are watching along multiple channels this massive slide away from democracy and democratic norms. And so that video is chilling because a the president doesn’t need that act to be able to remove a threat, but it speaks to his willingness to try to put America in a kind of quasi-martial law that ultimately will come to be a threat, not just to green card holders, but to American citizens as well.
So it’s a really worrying time and everybody in America should care what’s happening.
Chris Murphy: Trump ‘Putting’ U.S. Under ‘Quasi-Martial Law’