India-born lawyer Abhishek Kambli, who recently joined the US Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General is famous now for turning key legal strategist for the Trump administration. Kambli has been appointed by US President Donald Trump to defend the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to the administration’s advantage. The Act grants the US President the power to detain, relocate, or deport non-citizens.

So, amid a raging conflict between the judiciary and the executive in the US over the deportation of illegal immigrants, Trump has chosen Kambli to argue against an Obama administration appointee, Judge James Boasberg, who ordered a halt to the deportation flights. Among thousands of illegal immigrants deported from the US on special flights, there were about 400 Indians. So far, four flights from the US, carrying detainees without proper citizenship documents, have landed in India.

The legal battle began on March 15 when an American civil rights non-profit organization, ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) went to court soon after Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to fly five Venezuelan migrants back to El Salvador after deporting them.

Kambli’s family moved to the US from India when he was three. He grew up in Connecticut and got his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Notre Dame. His legal career took off at Dyess Air Force Base in 2013. Since then, there has been no turning back. Kambli has been holding significant positions in the legal arena. In 2023, he was appointed Deputy Attorney General and Division Chief for Special Litigation and Constitutional Issues in the Kansas Attorney General’s office. – editor@nrifocus.com