Declaring a national emergency and deploying armed military personnel to the southern border.
Mass deportations.
Ending birthright citizenship.
Reinstate Remain in Mexico.
Designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Travel and asylum bans.
Donald Trump plans to take sweeping executive actions on the border and immigration after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
According to incoming White House officials who previewed the actions during a Monday morning conference call with reporters, Trump will sign 10 executive actions related to border security and immigration enforcement.
Together, the executive actions are intended to return “America to commonsense immigration policy and restore American sovereignty,” an incoming White House official said, who stated that over the last four years under the Biden administration, the U.S. has been invaded by “cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries and illicit narcotics that harm Americans especially are youth invasion has caused widespread chaos and suffering.”
Here are the 10 executive actions on border security and immigration policy Trump plans to sign:
1. Declare a national emergency to increase military presence at the border.
Trump intends to declare a national emergency at the southern border and direct the Department of Defense to increase the U.S. military’s involvement there, including deploying more troops.
2. Clarify the military’s role in protecting U.S. territorial integrity.
The incoming administration will direct the Armed Forces to prioritize the Southwestern border in its strategic planning. Trump wants the military to play a more prominent role in securing the border to “(repel) forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities.”
3. End Catch and Release, reinstate Remain in Mexico, and build the wall
The Trump administration plans to resume constructing the U.S.-Mexico border wall, reviving a multibillion-dollar project halted by President Biden. During Trump’s first term, 450 miles of barriers were built, mostly replacing existing fencing.
Trump will reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” program, which requires asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings. In June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration to suspend the program. Reinstating the program would also require the Mexican government’s approval.
Additionally, Trump plans to invoke executive authority to restrict asylum and expedite deportations at the southern border, officials said. Changes in border policy under the Biden administration, combined with Mexico’s migration efforts, have already contributed to a four-year low in illegal crossings.
4. Designate cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and global terrorists
Trump plans to label cartels and global gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. This executive action places a target on groups that oversee much of the illicit migrant and drug flow across the southern border.
Incoming White House officials named the Tren de Aragua gang, a group from Venezuela, as well as the MS-13 gang, an American gang that spread to Central American countries like El Salvador.
The administration intends to invoke the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts to remove Tren de Aragua members, calling them an “armed force of the Venezuelan government” conducting a “predatory incursion and invasion.”
5. Suspend Refugee Resettlement for ‘at least four months’
The Trump administration will suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for “at least four months,” according to an incoming White House official.
The president decides yearly admissions after consulting with Congress, with no fixed floor or cap. The program allows refugees fleeing persecution or war to enter the U.S. legally following interviews, security checks, and medical screenings.
A similar action was taken in January 2017 during the first Trump administration, when the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was suspended for 120 days.
The administration admitted fewer and fewer refugees throughout the first four years Trump was in office, setting a record low cap of 15,000 during his last year in office. By comparison, the Biden administration set a target goal of 125,000 refugee admissions for the 2025 fiscal year.
6. End asylum at the border
This executive order would call for the immediate removal of migrants who enter illegally and makes those that do ineligible to apply for asylum. This is a continuation of a policy put in place by the Biden administration in June that has already led to a sharp decrease in Border Patrol encounters.
7. End birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants
This is one of the biggest border announcements. For more than 100 years nearly everyone born in the U.S. has received citizenship automatically. Birthright citizenship is rooted in the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the civil war and granting citizenship to everyone born in the U.S. including Black people. The amendment was later interpreted to apply to everyone born in the U.S. including the children of undocumented immigrants. Trump’s executive action, however, states that a phrase in the 14th Amendment, “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” should be re-interpreted to “clarify” that the federal government does not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
8. Travel bans
Trump will sign an executive action that enhances vetting and screening of undocumented immigrants. The executive order also calls for the possible relaunch of travel bans that would suspend entry of certain nationals from countries deemed of particular concern. The first Trump administration implemented similar travel bans through an executive action but those travel bans, deemed discriminatory, were rescinded by the Biden administration.
9. ‘Protect American people against invasion’
This executive order “rescinds open border policies” of the Biden administration, and calls for creating federal homeland security task forces to cooperate with state and local law enforcement to assist in the removal of gangs, criminals and undocumented immigrants from the U.S.
10. Death penalty
This executive order calls for the reinstatement of the death penalty for undocumented immigrants who commit capital offenses including those convicted of killing law enforcement officers or American citizens.
