first night Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed about 10 executive orders restricting immigration to the United States. In his inauguration speech, he said, “Through these measures, we will begin a complete recovery of America and a revolution of common sense.” “It’s all about common sense.”
Many of the promises promoted by top adviser Stephen Miller were shocking. Among other key actions, Trump declared a “national emergency” and pledged to “send troops” to the U.S.-Mexico border (despite border crossings reaching their lowest point in the final days of the Biden administration). Asylum seekers and refugees will feel the consequences. And the executive order is bound to become embroiled in legal battles.
The following is a summary of Trump’s first immigration-related executive order.
birthright citizenship
Trump faithfully kept his campaign promises did Issues an order, effective within 30 days, to deny citizenship to certain children born in the United States if the mother does not have legal status or was on a temporary visa at the time of birth and the father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. . It may sound complicated. But the reality is simple. If Trump gets his way, that doesn’t mean you no longer have to be born in the United States to be a citizen.
It didn’t take long for immigrant rights groups and several states to file lawsuits challenging the administration for violating the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship and more than a century of legal precedent. (We’ve written before about the long battle to end birthright citizenship.)
Refugees and Asylum Seekers
President Trump signed a total moratorium on refugee resettlement until “it is in the interests of the United States.” The suspension takes effect from Monday 27 January and will last for at least four months. It also requires state and local jurisdictions to play a greater role in the resettlement process. Along with the suspension, Trump is reintroducing the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy. That means forcing tens of thousands of asylum seekers and immigrants to wait in dangerous U.S.-Mexico border cities while they make their way through backlogged immigration courts. His administration also ended use of the Biden-era CBP One phone application to allow asylum seekers to legally appear at the border. (As a result, the appointment was revoked, leaving thousands of people stranded.) Finally, he declared an “invasion” at the border and issued a special presidential order allowing government officials to “repel, repatriate or remove” migrants, including asylum seekers. It cited authorities.
family separation
As part of his executive order to protect “the American people from invasion,” President Trump canceled several presidential actions taken during the Biden administration. This includes an executive order during the first Trump administration that established a Department of Homeland Security task force to reunite families separated at the border. As of March 2024, the task force has helped reunite 795 children with their parents. As I reported, many families are still separated seven years later.
mass deportation
Many of Trump’s executive orders strengthen the detention and deportation mechanisms his administration needs to carry out mass deportations. This includes the US military. In an effort to secure additional resources from federal authorities, President Trump declared a “national emergency” at the southern border and asked military forces, including reservists and National Guardsmen, to assist the Department of Homeland Security in immigration enforcement. He also ordered the Ministry of National Defense to provide support in the form of detention space and transport aircraft.
alien legal
Trump is moving to designate certain gangs, including drug cartels and MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. This action prepares the environment for Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to facilitate detention and deportation without due process. In his inaugural address, the president said he would use this wartime statute to unleash “the full and enormous power of federal and state law enforcement” against what he called an “invasion.”
Despite the width The depth of these presidential actions is only just beginning. The Trump administration is also upending the immigration system in ways that are difficult to track. He has already fired several senior officials in charge of the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts. example. Trump also reversed the Biden administration’s policy preventing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from apprehending immigrants in or near protected areas, including schools, hospitals and churches.
The federal government is under attack. The administration also said it would cancel funding for sanctuary cities and deny grants to organizations that provide services to immigrants. It will also double the cooperative agreements between ICE and local and state sheriffs and police departments. State and local authorities could still confront Trump’s plan for mass deportations. For this to happen, key Democratic Party officials must take a stand. In particular, New York Mayor Eric Adams attended Trump’s inauguration ceremony and instead of firing back, he sat down to interview Tucker Carlson.
