Breaking down the Trump admin’s new immigration agenda
Image: Jim Watson/AFP
President Trump signed a series of immigration-related executive orders hours after being sworn into office on Monday.
A breakdown
Trump began by declaring a state of national emergency at the US-Mexico border, clearing the way for military forces to be deployed to the border to suppress a recent influx of illegal immigrants.
Additional executive actions include:
- Ending the current policy of releasing asylum seekers into the US while their cases were considered by immigration courts.
- An attempt to "clarify" the language in the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants (which doesn’t appear to revoke existing citizenship). The federal government – and most legal experts – have long interpreted the Constitution as guaranteeing birthright citizenship.
- Designating certain Mexican drug cartels and Latin American criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations, which grants federal and state law enforcement additional tools against the groups’ connections in the US.
- Suspending CBP One, an app introduced under the Biden administration that allowed immigrants to apply for legal entry to the US as asylum-seekers.
Big picture: US Border Patrol reported 2.1 million total migrant encounters along the southern border for the fiscal year ending September 2024, a 14% decrease from the ~2.5 million reported in FY 2023.
Over 7.3 million unauthorized migrants illegally crossed the border into the US during President Biden’s administration (2021-24), compared to ~1.9 million unauthorized migrants during Trump’s first administration (2017-20), per federal data gathered by the Washington Post.
Looking ahead…Several of Trump’s executive orders are expected to encounter legal challenges soon. Case in point: the attorney generals of 18 states filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to block Trump’s executive order regarding birthright citizenship.
📊 Flash poll: In general, how do you feel about President Trump’s new immigration-related executive orders?
See a 360° view of what pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that while Democrats and the GOP are correct about the nation needing to fix its immigration issue, they are both wrong to label immigration as a universally good and universally bad thing in their respective policies, and need a reality check.
- Others contend that the large-scale deportation that the Trump-Vance administration has promised is not the right approach, and that it should take a page from the recently passed Laken Riley Act and individually assess the danger immigrants pose to the country.
- “Trump, Dems and GOP all wrong on immigration.” –Charleston Gazette-Mail Editorial Board
- “Congress to Trump: Yes to removing criminals, no to mass deportations.” –Washington Post Editorial Board
- “Trump Won’t Change the Fact That America Needs Immigrants.”–Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that rather than a full stop to illegal immigration, America should embrace a policy of bringing in only the best and brightest to advance the nation’s economic prosperity.
- Others contend that immigrants are costing the nation and citizens more than they are contributing and that the Trump-Vance administration should embrace a policy that forces them to pay what they owe.
- “The Immigrants America Needs.” –Phill Gramm, Wall Street Journal
- “Trump can fix the illegal immigration crisis and make them pay for it, too.” –Chuck DeVore, Fox News
- “Evanston will protect residents from Donald Trump’s immigration officials.” –Daniel Biss, Chicago Tribune
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