By Michael D. Shear, Hamed Aleaziz, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Just under four days have elapsed since President Donald Trump took office, and the immigration overhaul he initiated is already in progress.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon dispatched 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border. The head of the nation’s immigration courts was dismissed, along with three other high-ranking officials. In Mexico, around 30,000 migrants who had asylum appointments discovered that they were canceled. Over 10,400 refugees worldwide, previously approved for entry to the United States, suddenly found their access refused, rendering their plane tickets worthless.
“All previously scheduled refugee travel to the United States is being canceled, and no new bookings will be accepted,” Kathryn Anderson, a senior State Department official, stated in an email late Tuesday.
The magnitude of the immigration changes outlined in numerous executive orders, presidential memorandums, and policy directives is remarkable, particularly when juxtaposed with the extensive initiatives Trump pursued during his initial four years in office.
Nonetheless, the implementation of many directives will take time, or they may encounter political, legal, or practical challenges. Some could be paused by skeptical judges, while others will necessitate research or development by the various agencies engaged in shaping immigration policy. Moreover, many will demand significant financial resources from Congress, igniting additional disputes over budgets and priorities.
At least three lawsuits have already been filed in federal court to challenge Trump’s initiative to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s provision for birthright citizenship. The reinstatement of Trump’s travel ban requires a 60-day assessment of which nations should be impacted.
Trump will still require billions in funding for detention facilities and additional agents for his promised “mass deportations.” A directive from the Justice Department to investigate officials in so-called sanctuary cities who resist the administration’s immigration objectives will develop over weeks and months as disputes arise.
Consequently, the precise nature of a system that helps define America’s role in a world confronting issues of mass migration, inequality, and national identity will remain uncertain for weeks, months, or even years.
The fundamental question is whether the United States will continue to serve as a refuge for individuals escaping poverty, violence, and natural catastrophes worldwide. Collectively, the immigration orders could significantly complicate the lives of immigrants—whether legally in the country or not—in terms of living, working, and raising families in the United States without the persistent threat of arrest, criminal charges, and deportation.
However, Trump has already demonstrated his preparedness to push further towards a vision of a nation that is markedly less inviting to outsiders—an approach that critics contend represents an overstepping with harsh ramifications.
“It’s astonishing, both in terms of content and the sheer volume of actions they’re taking immediately,” remarked Heidi Altman, federal director of advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. “The potential impact and damage is vast, and there is also a clear willingness to flout the law and make an attempt to unilaterally amend the Constitution.”
Proclaiming an invasion
Trump defended his overhaul of immigration policy with a proclamation of an “invasion at the southern border.” He utilized this claim to assert significant powers to restrict access to the United States, apprehend and detain immigrants, forbid travel, limit birthright citizenship, construct a border wall, and terminate asylum for those seeking refuge.
In 2017, Trump sought to impose some of the same constraints on immigration, many of which were reversed by President Joe Biden. Eight years later, polling indicates that the current president garners more support for stringent immigration limits, partially due to a spike in migrants crossing the southern border during a significant portion of Biden’s presidency. Trump frequently asserts that his electoral win provides him with a mandate to secure the border and rid the nation of individuals he classifies as undesired.
In countering what he labels an invasion, Trump leans—much like during his first tenure—on decades-old laws that empower the president with extensive authority to safeguard the United States against threats both within and beyond its borders. These laws encompass those pertaining to national security, immigration, public health, and the economy.
However, this time he seems prepared to extend his reach significantly.
“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,” he stated during his inaugural address on Monday, “I will instruct our government to deploy the full and massive force of federal and state law enforcement to eradicate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks inflicting grave crime upon U.S. soil, including our cities and urban areas.”
He promised it would be “at a level that nobody has ever witnessed before.”
The executive orders Trump has enacted since then support that claim. Many of the measures he has instigated were absent from his agenda previously: labeling all Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations; establishing new task forces for the apprehension and deportation of migrants; implementing the death penalty for murderers residing illegally in the country.
On Wednesday, the Defense Department announced it would start utilizing military aircraft to assist border officials in deporting immigrants and allocate some forces to aid in constructing temporary and permanent border barriers. Border Patrol agents have also been instructed no longer to release any migrant who crossed the border into the public to await their cases, according to an official conversant with the issue. Agents have been directed to swiftly turn away migrants without allowing them the opportunity to request asylum.
Eight years prior, Trump reduced the annual cap on refugees the United States would accept. On Monday, he merely ordered that the program be suspended entirely, with wording that advocates believe will prevent its resumption while he is in office.
“He’s introducing so much at once that the suspension of the refugee program now feels like a minor issue,” commented David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization. He noted that Trump’s approach seems designed to overwhelm courts and oversight entities.
“They’re just throwing as much out there to rationalize their goals,” he asserted.
Still evolving
The array of sweeping changes is extensive.
DHS officials have been ordered to demand health records and criminal backgrounds from “aliens involved in the invasion across the southern border” to deny them access. One executive order instructs officials to gather this data from all “aliens,” leaving the possibility open that all immigrants, including those flying in from various countries, may face significantly stricter scrutiny.
Officials have been assigned the task of establishing Homeland Security Task Forces to collaborate with local and state law enforcement to locate, arrest, and deport migrants.
Federal agencies that partner with non-governmental organizations and other humanitarian groups have been ordered to initiate audits of these organizations to guarantee that no federal funds are being used to support immigrants residing in the country without legal authorization.
Experts indicate that the border orders and Trump’s transition might lead to an even further reduction in the number of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
“The border will likely be very quiet initially,” predicted Adam Isacson, a border security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group. “The first months of Trump’s last term recorded the lowest number of migrant apprehensions of the entire 21st century. We may see even fewer in the coming months.”
He suggested that instead, migrants would be motivated to cross the border undetected.
