President Donald Trump set in motion some of his most controversial immigration promises during his first week back in office, declaring a national emergency on the United States’ southern border, forcing his administration to roll back some of his first-term policies and Ordered to end programs that allowed people to Enter the United States legally.
Some of Trump’s actions took effect immediately — such as suspending the refugee resettlement program. Others, such as ending birthright citizenship, are already facing legal challenges or will require additional funding and diplomatic agreements to implement. Immigration experts say the moves send a clear message and are affecting immigrants already in the country.
“What’s especially clear about these measures already is the confusion, fear and uncertainty that these policies will bring to immigrant families,” said Thomas J. Rachko Jr., research manager at Georgetown University’s Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute. And for their communities are already being born.”
PolitiFact’s MAGA-Met tracks progress on 75 campaign promises that Trump made during the presidential campaign, including several on immigration. Here’s a sampling of what Trump did in his first week in the White House.
Announced an ‘invasion’ to deploy troops on the south-west border.
On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border, setting the stage for him to deploy the armed forces there to stop immigration officials from entering undocumented immigrants and reopen border barriers. I got help.
“It is imperative that the armed forces take all appropriate action to assist the Department of Homeland Security in regaining full operational control of the southern border,” Trump’s statement said.
Following Trump’s order, the Defense Department said it was sending 1,500 ground personnel, helicopters and intelligence analysts to “enhance food and surveillance efforts.”
Trump’s announcement also gives him the authority to use already-allocated Defense Department money to fulfill his campaign promise to “finish the wall.” Barring an announcement, it will have to wait for Congress to provide the money, a less certain thing.
Ended programs and policies that allowed people to enter the United States legally.
Trump says he supports legal immigration, but he has signed orders to freeze or end some programs that allow people to enter the U.S. legally.
CBP One: It ended the CBP One app that lets people make appointments at official ports of entry to start asylum applications. (Trump launched the app during his first term, but it was used to schedule inspections of perishable cargo entering the United States.) The Department of Homeland Security canceled about 30,000 appointments. Diya, The Washington Post reported.
Parole on humanitarian grounds: Trump also ended the humanitarian parole program that allowed citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come legally and work with authorization for at least two years. About 530,000 people came this way during Joe Biden’s administration, according to Homeland Security figures.
Refugee Program: Since the formalization of the refugee resettlement program in the 1980s, the United States has provided sanctuary to people who are persecuted, or feared, for the purpose of legally seeking asylum. Move to the US and eventually become eligible for US citizenship. On his first day, Trump suspended the program indefinitely. He said that the United States cannot absorb large numbers of refugees without compromising American resources and security.
Asylum seekers are screened before being allowed to enter the United States and must undergo biometric and biographical background checks and be interviewed by US Citizenship and Immigration Services officials overseas. should
With the program suspended, the Homeland Security and state secretaries can admit refugees on a case-by-case basis. Every 90 days, they must also submit a report to Trump on whether restarting the refugee program would benefit the United States.
Limited birthright citizenship leads to legal challenges.
As part of his 2024 campaign promise, Trump signed an executive order limiting birthright citizenship – the right of people to become US citizens when they are born in the US. Under Trump’s order, people born in the U.S. are not citizens if their mother is in the U.S. temporarily or illegally and if the father is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident.
Several states sued Trump over the constitutionality of the order. On January 23, a federal judge stayed Trump’s order for 14 days, saying “his damages are immediate, continuing and significant, and cannot be remedied in the ordinary course of litigation”.
Erin Corcoran, executive director of the Crook Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, said Trump’s first-day signing of the order “tests the outer limits of the executive branch’s power in the realm of immigration.”
Reintroduced a Trump-era program that requires people to stay in Mexico while awaiting court hearings.
Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to restore the Remain in Mexico program that sent some asylum seekers to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration court proceedings. He started the policy in January 2019 and ended it during Biden’s administration.
The Department of Homeland Security said it restarted the program on Jan. 21, but immigration experts have previously said the U.S. needs Mexico’s consent to implement the policy.
On January 22, President Claudia Scheinbaum said at a news conference that Mexico had not agreed to accept US asylum seekers. But, he added, the government would provide humanitarian assistance to the migrants and options to return to their home countries.
Extended process for immediate deportation without further action
To carry out one of his primary campaign promises, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has expanded its use of expedited removal, a fast-track system of deportations, to carry out the largest deportations in US history. The process Under expedited removal, immigration agents can deport people without a court hearing if they lack a credible asylum case.
Under the new policy, agents can deport people living in the U.S. who can’t prove they’ve been in the country for more than two years. Previously, agents only used expedited removal for people who had been in the U.S. for less than two weeks and were detained within 100 miles of the U.S. border.
The Trump administration also rescinded an executive order that barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from conducting deportations at schools, religious buildings and health care facilities.
In addition, Trump directed the Homeland Security and Treasury secretaries to designate cartels and other groups as foreign “terrorist” organizations. The order could set the stage for Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, a law of 1798 that allows the president to immediately deport non-citizens without further action if they are at war with the United States.
