# Plain Language Summary: Neighbors Not Enemies Act of 2021

This bill would eliminate a 200-year-old law called the Alien Enemies Act that gives the federal government broad power to detain, deport, or restrict foreign nationals during times of war or national emergency. Right now, if the U.S. is at war with another country, the government can round up citizens or residents from that enemy nation and hold them without the normal legal protections that apply in peacetime. The bill simply repeals this law entirely, meaning the government would no longer have this special wartime power over foreign nationals based solely on their country of origin.

The practical impact would be significant for immigrants and foreign residents living in the U.S. Currently, if America goes to war with another nation, people from that country could theoretically be arrested and detained just because of where they're from, regardless of whether they've done anything wrong. Repealing this law would mean that even during wartime, foreign nationals would have the same legal protections as everyone else—they couldn't be detained or punished simply based on their nationality. This would prevent situations like what happened during World War II, when the government used similar powers to justify the mass internment of Japanese Americans.

The bill's supporters argue that in modern times, we shouldn't have laws that allow the government to treat entire groups of people as enemies based on their national origin. Critics might counter that removing this power could limit the government's ability to respond to genuine national security threats during wartime. Either way, this is fundamentally about whether the government should have special emergency powers to restrict people's freedoms based on their country of origin.

Neighbors Not Enemies Act of 2021

Omar, Ilhan

Neighbors Not Enemies Act of 2021 This bill repeals provisions authorizing the President to apprehend and remove from the United States the citizens of a particular nation, if the United States has declared war against that nation or that nation has threatened an invasion against the United States.