The Deportation Rationale

President Trump’s promised immigration crackdown is here.Over the past two weeks, his administration has pushed against the limits of executive power — and surpassed them, critics say — to kick more people out of the country.The administration has readied two facilities in Texas to again detain immigrant families, including children, my colleagues Jazmine Ulloa and Miriam Jordan reported yesterday.

It invoked an arcane law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador, despite a judge’s order.It deported a kidney transplant expert who works at Brown University, also despite a judge’s order.

It detained a green-card-holding leader of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.Presidents have not traditionally treated illegal immigration as a national security issue, but Trump says migrants pose a threat.He claims without evidence that other countries have deliberately emptied their prisons and asylums to fuel an “invasion” of the United States.Today’s newsletter examines the new rationale for the crackdown — and the way it is taking shape.

Stretching powersIn each of the examples above, the Trump administration has gone further, or plans to go further, than previous administrations felt they could:Family detention: The administration has indicated that it will contest a 20-day limit on how long child migrants can be detained.Trump’s allies have long decried such limits as imposing a “catch and release” policy that forces the government to free unauthorized migrants.Venezuelan deportations: To evict migrants without a hearing, the administration cited a wartime law used most recently to intern Japanese Americans during World War II.

(The United States is not at war with Venezuela.) It dispatched planeloads of migrants over the weekend despite a court order that tried to stop the deportations.White House officials argue that a judge can’t restrict the president’s ...