The act is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain and deport non-U.S. citizens from enemy countries.

President Donald Trump is expected to invoke an 18th-century law called the Alien Enemies Act in coming days to speed up mass deportations of immigrants, CNN reported Thursday. The 1798 law was last invoked during World War II when President Franklin D.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 gives the president wartime powers to deport undocumented immigrants with little to no due process.

The Alien Enemies Act is a wartime law passed in 1798 as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts under President John Adams. It grants the U.S. president the authority