Among President Donald Trump's slew of immigration-related executive orders signed in his first week is mention of an 80-year law that went largely unnoticed.
In seeking to tighten border security, Trump invoked a rule requiring immigrants to carry identification proving their status — something civil-rights groups who spoke to Newsweek say is all but certain to end up with American citizens being detained by police.
"The act itself is called the (ARA), and so it's easy to think on the face of it: 'Well, this is not a concern for a U.S. citizen, I'm not a non-citizen, I was born here, or I naturalized here, so this doesn't affect me at all'," Anthony Enriquez, vice president of U.S. advocacy and human rights at RFK Human Rights, told Newsweek.
"In fact, that's not the real question. The real question is, well, are police going to believe that you actually are a U.S. citizen when they stop you and they say: 'where's your document?'"
Newsweek reached out to the White House with a list of questions related to the executive order.
Why It Matters
President Trump was elected off the back of an campaign promising big changes on immigration, including tougher border security and an increase in deportations of illegal immigrants. Polling has shown widespread support across the political spectrum for immigration reform, although there have been disagreements over how this should be carried out.
What To Know
The law from the 1940s was referenced in Trump's executive order, titled "Protecting the American People Against Invasion" and signed on Inauguration Day. As part of a list of orders meant to tackle the immigration issue, it emphasized the need to enforce immigration laws and shift the priorities of Department of Homeland Security agencies to make sure migrants in the U.S. illegally are removed.
Under Trump's order, and through the ARA, immigrants would be expected to carry I.D. proving their status. If they do not comply, then they face either civil or criminal prosecution, per the order. While the law has been in place — with a few amendments — for decades, it has not always been widely enforced.
For Enriquez, the concern is that American citizens or legally-present immigrants – such as Green Card holders – will be swept up by law enforcement as a result. He pointed to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in New Jersey last week, in which a U.S. veteran from Puerto Rico was detained because his military I.D. was not accepted.
"An alien registration scheme actually works as a citizen registration scheme," Enriquez said. "Because if the only way to avoid arrest is to make sure that you're carrying proof of your citizenship on you at all times, then this law affects everybody in the United States."
The example in New Jersey isn't the first time federal agents have arrested a U.S. citizen by mistake. In 2021, the Government Accountability Office reported that ICE may have deported as many as 70 Americans between 2015 and 2020, while 674 were arrested.
With the White House under pressure from Republican voters to deliver on Trump's mass deportation promise, civil rights groups have raised concerns that racial profiling could lead to a spike in those numbers.
In the past week, Native American leaders in Arizona and New Mexico have said members of their tribe had been approached by federal agents, with congressional Democrats calling for the Trump administration to "stop harassing" them.
"We know that disproportionately the burdens of the enforced by this type of law are going to hit people that are not white, that are racial minorities, that have a different last name, that have an accent, that have a skin color, that immigration agencies are assuming means you can't be born here," Enriquez said.
In a country where a national I.D. is not mandated or even necessarily available – an idea rooted in the inherent American desire for freedom from government control – it could be difficult to determine who is carrying eligible documentation and who isn't.
Approximately 24 percent of Hispanic and 21 percent of Black voting-age citizens do not have a current driver's license, compared to 8 percent of white citizens, according to the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. Nearly half of American citizens don't hold a passport.
Enriquez said it would be vital for law enforcement to fully understand what was expected of officers, and to use caution when determining how this applies to those living in the U.S., before trying to act on the Trump order.
"What's happening here is the executive order really says: no, don't take that kind of caution, don't take that kind of circumspection, and instead just go forth and treat this as a criminal enforcement priority," he said.
"When you get that kind of messaging from the top, inevitably you're going to have people swept up that have no business being prosecuted by these kinds of laws.
"That really is why it's baked into the DNA of Americans to not have a national ID and registration and carry requirement. There's a presumption that we have freedom and that you can't just be stopped by agents of the state to produce your permission documents to be there."
What People Are Saying
Lucas Guttentag, professor at Yale Law, told Newsweek: "Any widespread application of the law, especially in the undisciplined and unsupervised manner unleashed by this administration, will de facto compel citizens to produce identification at the whim of federal agents, will cause the harassment and arrest of innocent individuals, and will exacerbate racial profiling."
Eric Ruark, director at the right-leaning NumbersUSA, told Newsweek: "President Biden released seven million inadmissible aliens into the United States, not including 'gotaways' or visa overstays. The Trump Administration's position is that these inadmissible aliens are removable and it pledges the 'total and efficient enforcement' of immigration laws -- and the Supreme Court is likely to uphold these efforts.
"The main effect of this executive order will be twofold. First, it will result in the expedited removal of criminal aliens who benefitted from the Biden Administration's effective dismantlement of immigration enforcement. Second, it will send a powerful message to all foreign nationals unlawfully present in the United States that President Trump is serious about reestablishing the rule of law when it comes to immigration."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, at a briefing Tuesday: "To foreign nationals who are thinking about trying to illegally enter the United States – think again. Under this President you will be detained and you will be deported. Every day Americans are safer because of the violent criminals that President Trump's administration is removing from our communities."
What's Next
RFK Human Rights said it will be watching to see how this executive order is implemented, and whether there is the funding available to actually register and provide I.D. to all immigrants.
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