WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders just hours after taking office cracking down on border crossings and illegal immigration with more expected to come as he seeks to completely overhaul the United States’ immigration framework.
It will be significantly more difficult for people to gain entry to the U.S. after Trump made moves to lock down the southern border, close the country off to refugee resettlements, limit asylum and deploying the military to “seal” the border. The orders also included a national emergency declaration that expand his powers over border security and an attempt to end birthright citizenship for children born to people in the country without legal status.
Some of the orders are already facing legal challenges and others may be difficult to implement but they are a show of force from the new administration that it is set on cracking down on border crossings and removing migrants without legal status from the country.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said in a speech at the Capitol Rotunda after being sworn into office.
Immigration has been a pillar for Trump throughout his three campaigns for the White House amid vows to lock down the southern border and overhaul the nation’s immigration system. That theme continued during the 2024 election with promises to dramatically reduce illegal crossings and promises to deport some 11 million people living the in the U.S. illegally.
The Trump administration has already shut down a program created during the Biden administration giving asylum-seekers a place to secure appointments for admission to the U.S. and canceled all pending appointments. He also suspended resettlement of refugees and signed an order ending the practice of “catch and release,” where migrants are released into the U.S. while they wait for a court appearance.
Trump is also hoping to restate his “Remain in Mexico” policy, where migrants await their court hearing dates across the border, though that will require the cooperation of the Mexican government to go into effect.
A refugee resettlement program has been suspended for up to 90 days starting later this month, putting the status of tens of thousands of refugees in legal limbo while they await a report on whether resuming it would be in the nation’s interest.
Those come on top of plans to conduct a massive deportation effort that is still being started, creating uncertainty for migrants already in the country or hoping to get in, shutting down avenues to legal status in America.
“A lot of the policies are really addressed to the people that are currently here in the United States, which will have impact on whether or not people think it’s a good place to come to,” said Erin Corcoran, a professor at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. “In the things that (Trump) said and the things that he’s done, he’s making this a really nonattractive place for people to want to come to.”
The president also designated drug cartels as terror organizations, giving the federal government greater ability to target them. Drug trafficking and the prevalence of fentanyl flowing across the southern border has become an increasingly high-profile issue lawmakers are seeking to tackle through enhanced border security.
Trump’s moves to seal the border off have been met with fierce resistance from pro-immigration groups and Democrats in Washington.
“The Trump administration’s expected package of immigration executive actions undermining the immigration system are a departure from longstanding American principles and will weaken our economy and communities. While our immigration system is in desperate need of repair, these actions are not the solution,” Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement.
Trump’s orders at least temporarily backing the country out of humanitarian causes its immigration laws have supported for decades has also raised concerns from humanitarian groups.
“The refugee program is not just a humanitarian lifeline through which the U.S. has shown global leadership. It represents the gold standard of legal immigration pathways in terms of security screening, community coordination, and mutual economic benefit,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said in a statement.
Trump also made good on a promise to attempt to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined into the Constitution by the 14th Amendment. Anyone born in the U.S., with limited exceptions, automatically becomes a citizen regardless of their parents’ legal status.
The new order argues the amendment has been wrongly interpreted, setting up a legal showdown that could make it to the Supreme Court. It is already facing a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that described the order as a “reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values.”
Several groups have threatened or filed lawsuits challenging the administration’s flurry of executive orders, setting up what is likely to be a yearslong legal saga that will create uncertainty for people trying to navigate the system and the federal government enforcing it.
Impending litigation over immigration policy is a continuation of a longstanding pattern where the nation’s judicial system is forced to dictate what is legal, effectively determining U.S. policy while Congress has been unable to pass any meaningful reforms of the system.
The interim has been filled with new rules, restrictions and security measures that have varied based on who occupies the White House and how courts across the country with different leanings determine the legality of the administration’s policy.
“The problem is that those court cases can take years to resolve,” Corcoran said. “One of the questions will be will these some of these orders go into effect until they’re fully litigated, or will the court enjoin them? That remains to be seen.”
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