Operation Aurora

Background

Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were made law by the United States Congress in 1798 in the Quasi-War. This made it legal to catch and deport people who were not American in war times.

The law was used to deport people:

In the War of 1812 by James Madison against the English^[2]
In World War I by Woodrow Wilson against the Central Powers^[3]
In World War II by Franklin D. Roosevelt against Germans, Italians and Japanese.^[4] Japanese Americans were also captured.^[4]

Chinese Exclusion Act

Many Chinese people entered the United States to run away from the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars^[5]^[6] that killed almost one million people.^[7] Chinese immigrants were the biggest group of workers who finished the Transcontinental Railroad and were liked by railway companies.^[8] White Americans began to not like Chinese people and thought that they were stealing jobs.^[9] These bad feelings at Chinese people caused the Los Angeles Chinese massacre.^[9] This was the biggest lynching in the history of the United States^[10]^[11] and ten percent of the Chinese population in Los Angeles were killed at that time. The United States Congress signed the Chinese Exclustion Act that stopped Chinese people from entering the United States.^[9] This was the first big law to prevent immigration into the United States.^[9] The law stopped Chinese people from entering until it ended in 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act made a plan for future immigration laws in the United States that used race.^[12]^[13]

Operation Wetback

Operation Wetback was a plan made in May 1954 by United States to deport Mexicans who had illegally entered the United States.^[14] Many Mexicans moved to the United States because they did not have food.^[15] There was no food in Mexico because it was being sold to other nations.^[15] Two million people were deported from the United States during Operation Wetback.^[16]

Immigration problems

Presidency of Donald Trump

In August 2015, during the 2016 United States presidential election, Trump said he had a plan to deport many illegal immigrants.^[17]^[18]^[19] Trump said he wanted to make a "Deportation Force" to catch and deport people.^[20]^[21]^[22] He said his plan was like Operation Wetback.^[20]^[21]^[22]

Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769 a few days after he became president.^[23] The order stopped people from seven Muslim countries from going to the United States.^[23] The Trump wall was also built to make the United States-Mexico border wall bigger.^[24] The United States built hundreds of miles of new walls along the border during the presidency of Trump.^[25]

Project 2025

Many parts of the operation are from Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation.^[26] Stephen Miller was someone who wrote part of Project 2025.^[27]^[28] Miller said deporting millions of people is as important as building the Panama Canal.^[29] He said that National Guard troops in U.S. states that have Republican governors would be sent to the Democratic states to make sure deportations happened.^[29] Miller said camps would be made for caught illegal immigrants until they are deported.^[29] Project 2025 also said that police can catch illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States without an arrest warrant.^[30]

Tren de Aragua

A large gang named Tren de Aragua from Venezuela is leaving and going to other nations.^[31] The Trump government made economic sanctions against Venezuela during its economic crisis.^[32] The US government used sanctions because it wanted to make the government of Nicolás Maduro to leave during the Venezuelan presidential crisis.^[32] The Trump government said that sanctions make the Venezuelan economy bad and make Venezuelans leave their nation.^[33] The sanctions by the United States did make the economy in Venezuela bad and made many people leave the country.^[34]^[35]^[36] Tren de Aragua used the large groups of Venezuelans leaving their nation to make their gang bigger.^[37]

The gang was talked about a lot in the mass media in the United States. Two crimes by people in the gang were seen by many in the United States. The two crimes were the murder of Laken Riley^[38]^[39] and the murder of Jocelyn Nungaray.^[40] A viral video was shared in August 2024 of people from Tren de Aragua walking with guns around an apartment in Aurora, Colorado.^[41]^[42]

The event in Aurora made President Trump make the deportation of many illegal immigrants an important part of his presidency.^[1] Trump used the video from Aurora in his presidential campaign to talk about his plans on deportations.^[43]

On October 11, 2024, Donald Trump said a plan named "Operation Aurora" would be made to deport millions of illegal immigrants.^[44] Trump said agents would "hunt, arrest and deport all members of illegal immigrant gangs."^[44] He said he would make people who illegally return to the United States stay 10 years in prison.^[44]

The people leading Operation Aurora will be Stephen Miller and Tom Homan.^[45] Homan was the leader of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.^[45]

Some of the plans of Operation Aurora are from Operation Wetback.^[46]^[47] Operation Aurora also has some of the same ideas as Project 2025.^[26]

The Trump government plans to allow illegal immigrants in schools, hospitals and churches to be arrested.^[48] Trump says that he thinks illegal immigrants are invading the country.^[49] Trumps says that the military can catch illegal immigrants because of this invasion.^[49]

Some have said that illegal immigrants who kill a US citizen need the death penalty.^[50]

History