U.S. President Donald Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration on Monday, tasking the U.S. military with helping provide border security, issuing a sweeping ban on asylum and taking steps to limit the citizenship of children born on U.S. soil.
Declaring illegal immigration a national emergency, Trump ordered the Pentagon to provide support for building a border wall, creating places to hold and transport migrants, and authorized the Secretary of Defense to send troops to the border if needed.
Trump called on his administration to restore the “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced non-Mexican immigrants to wait in Mexico while their cases were resolved in the US.
Shortly after the inauguration, U.S. border authorities said they had shut down outgoing President Joe Biden's CBP One entry program, which allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to legally enter the U.S. by making an appointment on the app. Previous visits have been canceled, leaving migrants stunned and unsure of what to do.
Daynna del Valle, a 40-year-old Venezuelan, spent eight months in Mexico waiting for an appointment that was scheduled for Tuesday. At the time, she was working at a nail salon, but was earning so little that she was barely able to send money to her mother in Colombia, who was a cancer survivor and required treatment for high blood pressure.
“I'm lost,” she said. “I don't know what to do, where to go.”
Trump, a Republican, reclaimed the White House after promising to strengthen border security and deport record numbers of migrants. He criticized Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during the Democratic presidency, even though Biden angered some members of his party by tightening policies that severely limited the right to seek asylum. Mexico has also stepped up enforcement, and the number of migrants caught crossing the border illegally has dropped dramatically.
Trump's influence helped kill a bipartisan bill in Congress early last year that was intended to address some of the long-standing and newer problems facing the United States with the influx of immigrants at the border. Once a magnet for individual Mexicans looking for work, in recent years entire families and increasing numbers of asylum seekers in Central and South America have made sometimes dangerous journeys to gain entry to the U.S.
The result is years of backlogs in the asylum court. But on Monday, the nascent Trump administration moved to take control of the U.S. Justice Department's immigration courts, firing four top immigration court officials, three sources familiar with the matter said.
In her first comments after Trump's inauguration, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum noted that some of his initial announcements closely resembled actions taken during his previous term, and sought to assure Mexicans that she would vigorously defend their interests.
In response to Trump's initial actions to stop illegal migration, Sheinbaum said her government would address migrants' needs in a “humane” way, even as she also promised to repatriate foreign migrants to their home countries.
“We were gone for 1 day”
Republicans say large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants entered illegally during Biden's presidency. According to U.S. government estimates, there were approximately 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in early 2022, and some analysts now estimate that number at 13-14 million.
“As commander in chief, I have no greater duty than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is what I intend to do,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
Trump critics and immigrant advocates say mass deportations could disrupt the economy, divide families and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Monday in a federal court filing that Trump's decision to end the CBP One program removed the only route to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, an opening salvo by the civil rights group to fight Trump's program in court.
One of US President Donald Trump's first executive orders declared a state of emergency on the border with Mexico, which will trigger the deployment of troops and the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants.
Honduran immigrant Deni Mendez's phone began buzzing with a message that the app she used to book a U.S. asylum visit scheduled for Tuesday was not working.
Mendez, a 32-year-old single mother, fled with her daughter Sofia and son Isai, both teenagers, after a gang member began extorting her.
“We were one day away,” Mendez said incredulously as she discussed her options with other migrants, many of them Venezuelans.
A legal challenge is expected over the transfer of birthright citizenship
In his executive order focusing on so-called “citizenship by birth,” Trump called on U.S. agencies to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. who do not have at least one U.S. citizen or permanent resident parent and to apply restrictions within 30 days.
His executive order prompted a swift filing of a lawsuit in federal court in New Hampshire by the ACLU and other groups, which argued that Trump's executive order violated the right of every person born in the United States to be considered a citizen enshrined in the U.S. Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
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“Denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. is not only unconstitutional, but also a reckless and callous rejection of American values,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement.
Canada offers no formal guarantee to children born in the country, although citizenship is granted in most cases, including a recent case involving Russian spies that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
In other executive orders, Trump suspended refugee resettlement in the U.S. for at least three months and ordered a security review to examine whether travelers from certain countries should be subject to a travel ban.
The Republican president rolled back existing guidelines for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers that prioritized serious criminals and expanded the scope of enforcement, including a focus on migrants with final deportation orders that could help increase removals.
Trump also launched a process to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and use a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act against members of foreign gangs.