Former President Trump is saying that to carry out mass deportations he'd employ a 226-year-old law that was previously used to detain "enemy aliens" in times of war.

Why it matters: The use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in the 21st century could result in the unfair detention of lawful immigrants and their U.S.-born children, especially at a time when the outcome of a legal challenge is uncertain under the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

Catch up quick: At a campaign stop in Aurora, Colorado, last week, Trump detailed a plan to target undocumented immigrants with gang ties.

• Trump said if elected he intends to invoke the act to target "every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil." He's calling it "Operation Aurora."

Background: The Alien Enemies Act, signed by President John Adams as part of the "Alien and Sedition Acts," allows the detention and removal of migrants only when there is "a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government."

• Removal also can occur under "any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government."
• The act has been invoked three times, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
• The law was used, for example, to detain some German and Italian immigrants during World War I, but it can't be used to hold U.S. citizens — though the U.S.-citizen children of immigrants could get caught up in it.

Yes, but: It would be difficult to use the 1798 law to hold immigrants unless Trump declares criminal networks like the Sinaloa Cartel a foreign nation, Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel in the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program, tells Axios.

• Ebright says invoking the law has become popular among Republicans who have used the word "invasion" to describe current migration.
• "The rhetorical framing of migration as an invasion is not only something that turns up the temperature in the political landscape, but it's also something that is meant to conflate legal and rhetorical concepts."
• She says the law is an outdated and dangerous relic that threatens constitutional rights and could be abused by an authoritarian president.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign's national press secretary, says a majority of Americans "want mass deportations of illegal immigrants and trust President Trump most on this issue."

• Leavitt says Trump will launch the largest criminal deportation in our country's history and use every effective legal mechanism, like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to target and dismantle every "migrant criminal network."

The big picture: Using the 1798 law is one of the steps Trump has mentioned as he talks about mass deportations and increasingly uses dark language about immigrants, calling them the "enemy from within" and falsely attacking their genes.

• Last year, he said undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country," language echoing the rhetoric of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler.

Share this story

Arizona State University is relaunching its Hispanic Research Center to foster a greater understanding of the state's diverse Latino population.

Why it matters: Latinos are economic drivers, political decision-makers and artistic influencers — but politicians, reporters and academics often misunderstand them.

The big picture: The Hispanic Research Center was launched in 1985 and has spent the past few decades focused on Chicano art and literature.

• When the federal government designated ASU a Hispanic Serving Institution in 2022, the university decided to expand the center's mission to provide more research opportunities and a space for Hispanic organizations to collaborate with the school, new director Stella Rouse tells Axios.

State of play: The center organized its first poll of Arizona and U.S. Latinos and will release the results later this month.

• Rouse, whose background is in political science, says her team will continue polling Latinos regularly to find the pulse of political sentiment and key issues.
• "The needs and the policy priorities of this community are not going to end when the presidential race is over with, despite the media leaving town," Rouse said.

The intrigue: The Hispanic community represents people from 21 countries. There are significant religious, political and cultural differences among them, but they are often viewed as a monolithic group, the center's associate director Anita Huizar-Hernández tells Axios.

• She said the center plans to conduct research to highlight nuances within the Latino population and the diverse needs and perspectives that inform their worldviews.
• "We're here for the complexity," Huizar-Hernández says.

Keep reading

When many people are looking forward to sweet corn at the peak of summer, another cuisine is ripening in Iowa at the same time: huitlacoche — a misunderstood corn fungus that's overlooked in the U.S. but considered a delicacy in parts of Mexico.

Why it matters: Iowa farmers throw infected ears out, but some dining and agricultural experts say Iowa should embrace the earthy fungus and even capitalize on it.

What it is: Huitlacoche, sometimes known in the U.S. as "corn smut," is a common, fungal disease that grows on crops over the summer season, producing a lumpy, white mold that eventually turns black.

• In taste, it's similar to a mushroom, but more bitter than a portobello, with a deep, earthy flavor.

It's a popular cuisine item in states like Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca.

• It is often served in tacos, quesadillas and moles, but there are also more fanciful interpretations served in Michelin-starred restaurants.

Huitlacoche is a delicacy because you can't plan for it. It's fickle to grow it in a lab, says Alison Robertson, a field crops pathologist at Iowa State.

• "I would even compare it to a pearl," Gustavo Arellano, a columnist with the Los Angeles Times who writes about Mexican food, tells Axios.
• "Not all oysters give you pearls, but when you do have a pearl from an oyster, it's incredible," Arellano says.

Zoom in: Xochil Fonseca, of Texcoco, Mexico, and her husband David Bonnett, of Canberra, Australia, grow a white corn near Boone and sell it through their business "Eloteshop" around Iowa and the Twin Cities.

• They sold huitlacoche at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market this summer, though most people walking by were uninterested in it, Bonnett says. Instead, their main customers are Latin Americans who follow their social media page for updates.
• "It's a pretty high-value thing," Bonnett says. "There's lots of Latin Americans, so there is demand and there's a potential with the foodie types that there's a real interest in it."

Yes, but: It would be difficult to convince Iowans, let alone most Americans, to eat huitlacoche when the English terminology is "corn smut," Arellano says.

Tell a foodie

1. New data revealed by Panamanian authorities shows an increase in the number of people crossing the Darién Gap last month.

• The increase is being attributed to more Venezuelans leaving the country after the results of the July 28 elections.
• President Nicolás Maduro says he won a third term, which international observers dispute, and has cracked down against protests demanding he show the vote count.

2. Former Bolivian President Evo Morales is threatening to call for street blockades and a massive strike in response to an arrest warrant against him.

• Morales is accused of statutory rape in a case stemming from 2020, charges he says are politically motivated to stop him from trying to run in next year's presidential election.
• Another march called for by Morales last month ended in skirmishes between his supporters and police in the capital, La Paz.

Children help with a tree plantation drive in Masca, northern Honduras. Source: via Noticias Telemundo

Fisherwomen and men in Honduras are taking it upon themselves to help repopulate a critical swamp area affected by erosion.

State of play: The loss of mangroves, or coastal tree areas, is happening at a faster rate than general forest loss, according to studies.

• That affects biodiversity and these tropical forests' capacity to help mitigate global warming.
• In response, a community dedicated to fishing in Masca, northern Honduras, has been planting new trees and shrubs in the area.

What they're saying: "We are just really hoping to help recover some of what's been lost, including fish and crab species," fisherman Mario Martínez tells Noticias Telemundo.