While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he supports President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy federal resources, including 700 active-duty Marines, to end the anti-immigration enforcement riots in Los Angeles, he’s unsure of what authority the president is invoking to legally do so.

“I don’t know the particulars on what authorities exist there, but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can’t do under the law,” Thune said, according to The Hill. “Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it.”

Thune was referring to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which gives the president the authority to detain and deport citizens of an enemy nation during a declared war, invasion or predatory incursion.

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