President Donald Trump has revived an obscure and discredited provision of a law that was used to force millions of Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II. Millions of noncitizens are now legally required to register with the government and appear at facilities where they could be detained. Immigrants have been put in a dangerous double-bind: either violate the law or adhere to it and risk deportation.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed Executive Order 14159, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” directing the secretary of Homeland Security to enforce the “Registration Provision” of the Alien Registration Act of 1940. This law gained notoriety when the U.S. government forced millions of noncitizens to register, facilitating the internment of Japanese Americans. Since then, the registration provision has largely not been enforced.
Until now, that is. In April, new rules went into effect that require millions of noncitizens to register with the government. Unregistered noncitizens 14 and older must file a new form online or on paper with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which then sends individuals instructions to appear at an application support center — facilities where officials from USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement can question, arrest, and detain noncitizens — to be fingerprinted. USCIS’s website warns that those who “do not comply with the [Alien Registration Requirement] may face criminal penalties.”
The agencies have claimed that this rule will “make it easier and safer for DHS to enforce the law” because they would have more “comprehensive information” about noncitizens’ locations. But others see the policy for what it is: a major departure from longstanding immigration policy and a deliberate and dangerous attack on the rights of undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. People should not be forced to choose between following the law and risking being torn from their families.
Over the last six months, in pursuit of the administration’s aggressive mass deportation goals, DHS has begun rounding up individuals — many of whom have no history of violence or criminal records — at places like USCIS application support centers to question, detain, and eventually deport them. The exploitation of noncitizens’ efforts to comply with Executive Order 14159 and other immigration laws by appearing at these locations undercuts the administration’s claims that their mass deportation agenda focuses on dangerous individuals and ensuring public safety. Instead, the invocation of the Registration Provision appears to be similarly pretextual, serving only to deport as many noncitizens as possible.
In response, American Oversight has sent Freedom of Information Act requests to DHS, USCIS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and ICE seeking internal communications, directives, and legal guidance related to Trump’s order. When the agencies failed to respond to our requests, we went to court. The public deserves to know how this policy came to be — and just how far the Trump administration is willing to go in its campaign of fear, intimidation, and dehumanization.
