Donald Trump issued a slew of immigration-related executive orders on “day one” ranging from closing the southern border and ending birthright citizenship to closing asylum and refugee admissions.
Trump has claimed immigration was the issue that got him elected and devoted much of his inaugural address to that issue and followed up the same day with executive orders, some of which are sure to be challenged in court.
Doris Meissner
“He went through a whole list of executive orders then and we saw many more throughout the day and into the evening, to the point that we are really seeing a flood-zone approach, as had been predicted,” said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute, during a Jan. 21 webinar discussion about the orders.
Prepping for mass deportation
While neither his speech nor his first-day orders provided details about the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants Trump has promised, the directives clearly lay the groundwork for such an action, Meissner said. “The executive orders that have to do with expedited removal, broadening detention capacity, information sharing with local law enforcement, all do speak to the issue of the mass deportations initiative.”
Trump’s “Securing Our Borders” action, for example, calls for construction of walls and other barriers along the border with Mexico, apprehending, detaining and in some cases prosecuting undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and partnering with state and local law enforcement agencies on border security.
The order also calls for an end to the longstanding “catch-and-release” approach that frees migrants soon after their detention and until receiving asylum or parole hearings. It also reinstates the “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols, which Trump enacted during his first term to quickly return migrants to Mexico after being apprehended in the U.S.
The directive terminates the CBP One app used by those awaiting in Mexico for hearings to gain legal entry, eliminates temporary parole programs protecting certain persecuted Latin American immigrants and threatens humanitarian parole status for Afghan war refugees.
Asylum is targeted, too. On inauguration day, White House officials said the administration wants to end asylum completely and shut the border to migrants without legal status, NPR reported. The goal is to create “‘an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum.’”
On inauguration day, White House officials said the administration wants to end asylum completely and shut the border to migrants without legal status.
Trump’s action says the measures are in response to “a large-scale invasion at an unprecedented level” which it claims began during Biden’s presidency. “Millions of illegal aliens from nations and regions all around the world successfully entered the United States where they are now residing, including potential terrorists, foreign spies, members of cartels, gangs, and violent transnational criminal organizations, and other hostile actors with malicious intent.”
At least two actions taken by the administration on “day one” included firing numerous immigration judges and other U.S. Justice Department officials with immigration responsibilities, along with the sacking of U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan who was accused of putting DEI initiatives ahead of border security. Fagan had been in her role only two years.
‘National emergency’
A new proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border seeks to expand the claims of “invasion” at the border by defining Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and authorizing the use of U.S. military personnel for tasks such as wall construction and ariel surveillance.
The order states: “Cartels control vast territories just south of our southern border, effectively controlling who can and cannot travel to the United States from Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have tragically died from drug overdoses because of the illicit narcotics that have flowed across the southern border. This assault on the American people and the integrity of America’s sovereign borders represents a grave threat to our nation.”
A separate-but-related order puts cartels in the crosshairs by labeling them as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” engaged in “insurgency and asymmetric warfare,” infiltration of foreign governments and campaigns of “assassination, terror, rape and brutal force” in addition to smuggling operations along the U.S. southern border.
‘Invasion’
Another executive order directs the secretary of defense to assign responsibility for sealing the nation’s borders to the U.S. Northern Command in order to repel “forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
The secretary of state and the heads of the U.S. Treasury, Department of Justice, Homeland Security and National Intelligence are directed by order to make “operational preparations” against cartels using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — the same law invoked to restrict the rights of German Americans during World War I and to incarcerate Japanese Americans for the duration of World War II.
Muzzafar Chisti
Casting the cartels as an enemy force is likely the administration’s way of justifying military action against them, said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at MPI. “My own feeling is that this is done to create this expanded and beefed-up notion that these are really terrorist organizations who are operating against the U.S. government and against U.S. interests so it will allow us to go and act against them maybe inside Mexico or inside other countries.”
The invasion and terrorist labels also may open the way for targeting undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. for detention and deportation, he said. “People who have contact with any of these organizations will now be deemed ineligible for asylum because they were aided by a terrorist organization.”
Another order, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” revokes Biden administration policies addressing the root causes of migration, reuniting migrant families separated at the border, managing migration in North and Central America and requiring safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers.
The action further directs the secretary of Homeland Security to ensure U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to prioritize the cartels as a national security issue. It also demands establishment of Homeland Security Task Forces in every state.
“The objective of each (task force) is to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States, dismantle cross-border human smuggling and trafficking networks, end the scourge of human smuggling and trafficking, with a particular focus on such offenses involving children, and ensure the use of all available law enforcement tools to faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States,” the order explains.
But Meissner said the administration may be opening the door to an increase in illegal border crossings by undoing Biden’s policies: “Where the southwest border is concerned, the Trump administration is inheriting a stable border with the lowest level of illegal crossings since prior to the Biden administration, going back into the final years of the first Trump administration.”
Claiming health and security risks
A proclamation “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” alleges many migrants are national security and health risks to the nation. “As a result, millions of aliens who potentially pose significant threats to health, safety and national security have moved into communities nationwide.”
The action grants the president authority “to repel, repatriate or remove any alien engaged in the invasion” until it is determined “the invasion at the southern border has ceased.” It also denies unauthorized immigrants access any legal provision enabling them to remain in the country.
While the proclamation does not specifically include detention as a provision, that action is laid out in the executive order designed to secure American borders. “The secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate actions to detain, to the fullest extent permitted by law, aliens apprehended for violations of immigration law until their successful removal from the United States.”
Refugee resettlement
Trump’s order suspending refugee resettlement for at least 90 days pending further review is necessary due to a scarcity of resources, he says. “The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”
If and when resettlement is resumed, only those refugees who present no security threats and “who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States” without draining resources will be admitted. “It is also the policy of the United States that, to the extent permitted by law and as practicable, state and local jurisdictions be granted a role in the process of determining the placement or settlement in their jurisdictions of aliens eligible to be admitted to the United States as refugees.”
Refugees already are the most-vetted entrants to the United States and have not been reported as the cause of security threats — except for Trump’s false claim during the campaign that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing cats and dogs to eat.
Julia Gelatt
The order already has begun to affect resettlement even though it does not go into effect until Jan. 27, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of MPI’s U.S. immigration policy program. “Already, flights of vetted refugees are being canceled. Well over 1,000 Afghans have had their flights to United States cancelled through the refugee program.”
Those are refugees who already had been screened and approved for U.S. entry.
A similar suspension was enacted at the outset of the first Trump administration and eventually resumed with historically low admissions ceilings, she said. “So, we can expect at least to see low numbers, but how long this pause stays in place, I think, is an open question.”
Birthright citizenship
Among the more controversial actions was Trump’s order redefining birthright citizenship a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The administration claims migrant parents in the country illegally or with temporary legal status are not subject to American jurisdiction as the amendment requires, meaning their U.S.-born children are not citizens.
“Most legal scholars in the country believe that to end (birthright citizenship) will require a constitutional amendment,” Gelatt explained. “So, you can imagine that it is going to be subject to litigation and may reach the Supreme Court.”
SangYeob Kim
In fact, the order already faces litigation. American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus and other civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 20 challenging Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship. They argue the practice has consistently withstood legal challenges since the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1898.
“Every child born in the United States should be born with the same rights as every other child — and that’s why the U.S. Constitution ensures that no politician can ever decide who among those born in our country is worthy of citizenship,” said SangYeob Kim, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Hampshire.
Separately, a group of 18 Democratic state attorney generals joined with San Francisco and Washington, D.C, in a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts Jan. 21.”What the president did yesterday is unlawful, unconstitutional and it will not stand,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a report by NPR.
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