In a call with journalists Opening day in the morning, White House officials advanced a series of executive orders and other actions they said the incoming Trump administration plans to address on immigration and US border issues.
“We will protect the American people against invasion,” one of the incoming officials said during the call. “This is about national security. This is about public safety. And this is about the victims of some of the most violent and violent criminals we’ve seen in our lifetimes. And it ends today.”
Many of the proposed executive orders revealed on Monday’s call require the support of international partners such as Mexico and would almost certainly spark legal battles.
Although one of the officials at the entrance said the call “anticipated a series of actions that will take place today,” it was not clear from the call, in which officials asked very few questions of reporters, that anything they talked about would actually happen. monday
Here are some of the executive actions ordered:
Declaring a national emergency on the southern border
The incoming administration will declare a national emergency along the southern border. This will allow the DoD to deploy armed forces in the region and free up resources to build a wall and other barriers there. he promised he would in his first administration.
“What this action does is it expands the armed forces, lifts physical barriers by ordering the secretaries of DOD and DHS to finish the border wall, and also enables anti-UAS capabilities near the southern border,” a White House official said.
President Donald Trump shows a photo of the US/Mexico border wall during a panel discussion on US border security in Yuma, Arizona, on June 23, 2020.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
It’s not entirely clear what the official meant by “counter-UAS capabilities,” but it should be noted that since at least the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used drones and other UAS (unmanned aircraft systems). help guard the southwest border.
According to the call, the Secretary of Defense will be directed to deploy armed troops and the National Guard to the border. In response to a follow-up question, a White House official could not say how many troops would be deployed, saying the decision “will be up to the secretary of defense.”
Clarifying the role of the military “to protect the territorial integrity of the United States”
The executive order aims to allow the military to “prioritize our borders and territorial integrity,” a White House official said on the call. The official also said the order will direct the military to plan operations to maintain territorial integrity “to repel all forms of invasion including mass illegal migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities.”
Reinstate “stay in Mexico”, end “catch and release” and build the wall
In addition to creating federal and state partnerships to help enforce immigration policies and deportation priorities, this executive order would also aim to end the practice of “catch and release” and mandate the construction of a wall along the US’s southern border.
Although often used pejoratively, “catch and release” describes the practice of releasing undocumented immigrants after being processed at the US border and pending immigration hearings in court. The term was coined during the George W. Bush administration and describes a practice that has been implemented in every administration since, including the first administration of Donald Trump.
Because it is logistically impossible to safely detain migrants indefinitely, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other authorities release some migrants into the community to await their legal proceedings.
Staying in Mexico is a policy implemented under the first Trump administration that required some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, rather than in the US, as their applications were processed in US courts. This action would require Mexico’s cooperation, which White House officials did not address on Monday’s call.
Immigrants seeking asylum in the United States walk along the border fence at sunrise as they are being processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing from Mexico into Arizona on May 11, 2023 in Yuma, Arizona.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Trump also promised during his first presidential campaign to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, and signed an executive order to do so just days after taking office. Few new sections of fence were installed along the border during his administration, although many sections of damaged or outdated fences were repaired or replaced.
Designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
The incoming administration will sign an executive order designating drug cartels and other criminal organizations, including US-El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations or. specifically designated global terrorists (SDGT).
A White House official said Monday that the order will direct authorities to specifically remove Tren de Agua members from the United States. And, mentioning Alien Enemies Act Established more than two centuries ago, the official said the Tren de Agua has become an “irregular armed force of the Venezuelan government” that is conducting a predatory attack and invasion of the United States.
“End Asylum…for Illegals”
The White House official said the Trump administration will “end asylum and close the border to illegals by proclamation.” Essentially, this means that undocumented migrants caught between ports of entry will not be able to apply for asylum, which will “create an immediate removal process with no chance of asylum,” the entry official said.
Like the other executive orders announced Monday, this one would likely face legal hurdles for a number of reasons. Current laws allow asylum seekers to try to claim asylum or protection once they enter the country, regardless of whether they have crossed between ports of entry. That has been the basis of several legal battles against some of the newer ones asylum restrictions Which was implemented by the Biden administration in June 2024.
Suspension of refugee resettlement
The incoming official said on Monday’s call that the Trump administration plans to suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months.
Termination of birthright citizenship
An official included in Monday’s call said, “Then we will end birthright citizenship. This action affects the phrase ‘and subject to the authority thereof’ in the 14th Amendment to clarify … children of illegal aliens born in the United States.”
It was unclear on Monday’s call whether ending birthright citizenship will be part of the day’s announcements or come later. Trump did it the same promise in his first term.
Customs and Border Patrol agents load migrants into a vehicle on June 5, 2024, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, after a group of migrants entered the United States from Mexico.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Improved compliance
The senior official said Monday that the new administration will “enhance screening and vetting of illegal aliens” and direct agencies to make recommendations to the president “to suspend entry to migrants from countries of particular concern.”
Creation of “homeland security working groups”.
To help track down gang members, criminals and other undocumented immigrants, the new administration plans to establish “federal homeland security task forces” so that federal, state and local law enforcement can work more closely together to take them down.
Reinstating the death penalty when a law enforcement officer is murdered
According to the official, the new administration plans to “reinstate the death penalty in public safety” by ordering the attorney general to seek the death penalty when an undocumented immigrant kills a law enforcement officer or commits other capital crimes. The new administration will also encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to pursue the death penalty in such cases, according to the incoming official.
