Trump’s Early Actions Overwhelm The Immigration System

President Donald Trump has already inundated the country’s immigration system with enough changes to create immediate impacts along the border and across American cities.

Thousands of migrants trying to gain entry in the United States to seek asylum using the Custom and Border Patrol’s mobile app — set up by the Biden administration to deter migrants from crossing illegally — had their appointments canceled, throwing into limbo many, including those who had been waiting for months. The Biden administration’s website for humanitarian parole for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela went dark. Refugee admissions into the country were indefinitely halted. Immigration authorities can now enter schools, churches and places of worship to conduct arrests, reversing a policy that had long kept those sanctuaries off limits. The new administration fired top immigration court officials. And Trump’s sweeping birthright citizenship order — intended to deny the right to babies born to undocumented immigrants in the United States — immediately sparked legal challenges, as blue-state attorneys general moved quickly to attack an effort they decried as unconstitutional.

The president is still fighting to muscle some of his most aggressive orders, such as ending birthright citizenship, past the courts and Democrats, and he will face steep obstacles in funding and implementing his policies. But unlike four years ago, when he came into the White House with hastily drawn orders, Trump and his allies have used his time out of office to draft a more robust agenda. And the torrent of immigration executive orders has already dramatically altered the country’s treatment of immigrants, as experts and advocates continue to analyze his moves for clues about what might withstand legal muster, what actions have the most teeth and what the president may unleash next.

“They had stuff ready to go, and they had their ducks lined up better,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that pushes for less immigration. “In the long run for them, it’s better that they lost in 2020 because they’re not only way more prepared, but the political situation is far more conducive to getting stuff done.”

Many policy experts are pointing to one of Trump’s first orders as an example of his administration’s new approach to winning expected court battles that thwarted some of his first-term agenda. On Monday, he directed agencies to identify countries where vetting visitors and visa applicants is considered infeasible and poses a potential threat to national security. It’s the building block to a larger ban on travel from some countries and an example of the White House’s preparation and desire to avoid the courtroom defeat of his 2017 travel ban targeting majority-Muslim nations. It’s also an indication that his early swath of executive orders is just the beginning.

“You can see just by the number of actions that have been prepared and signed within 24 hours, how much work and effort behind the scenes has been placed on these executive orders and the lead that immigration has taken,” Doris Meissner, a Migration Policy Institute senior fellow and former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Bill Clinton, said in a call with reporters. “We’re really seeing a flood-the-zone approach.”

It’s no accident that immigration has been so central to Trump’s first days as president, as he works to make good on an issue that has defined his political career. His top officials have stressed that the president’s early actions were crafted to crack down on the border, and that they’re actively discussing additional ways to continue to push his agenda forward.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

But his strategy is hardly foolproof, as he will continue to face legal challenges and political hurdles, given he will have to rely on a closely divided Congress to fund and legislate many of his bigger promises.

His order intended to end the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship promise by directing federal agencies to withhold citizenship documents to children born to undocumented parents was challenged by the ACLU within hours, followed by a slew of lawsuits from blue states.

Trump’s birthright citizenship order also drew questions from Democrats about his willingness to work across the aisle. Trump talked about the importance of legal immigration during Monday remarks, while at the same time challenging birthright citizenship, even for people who have children while in the U.S. on student or work visas, such as H-1B or L-1 visas — a level of sweep that surprised Democrats and advocates preparing for legal challenges.

“The Democrats are at the table, but he won’t let us sit down,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). “We’re in favor of [securing the border]. It would be legal immigration that’s beneficial to our economy, and it also would be a pathway to status for the Dreamers, and if he’s in the driver’s seat, we’re ready to do business. Does he want to or not?”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a leading pro-immigrant voice in the Senate, slammed Trump’s birthright citizenship order.

“It was clearly unconstitutional and unlawful, but he wants to continue just a message versus being serious,” he said. “There are some common sense, workable ideas.”

Trump’s orders reversing Biden’s immigration policies — from the parole programs to the mobile app to apply for asylum — are among the moves that have carried the most immediate impact. He has also pushed Biden’s most controversial action among liberals — a June crackdown on asylum — even further. Trump, using executive authority, declared an invasion at the border as a justification to suspend all entries, even as border numbers are at their lowest levels since Trump’s last term, in part because of Biden’s crackdown and increased enforcement from Mexico. Trump, invoking Section 4 of the Constitution which requires the U.S. to protect states from foreign invasion, could face legal challenges — potentially clashing with the Immigration and Nationality Act’s guarantee of access to asylum.

His actions also previewed the work ahead for the new administration, as they move to end so-called catch and release — the release of migrants into a U.S. community while they await their immigration court hearings — which will require new funding and ways to expand detention space. Trump also directed his agencies to begin the process of reinstating Remain in Mexico, a first-term policy that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings. But it will require the administration to secure an agreement with Mexico first, which may be difficult given Trump’s prior provocations of the neighboring country.

Trump’s broadening of the scope of potential immigration raids — announced Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security — sparked a new round of fears and rumors in immigrant communities across the country. Organizations in major cities had already been preparing migrants for possible raids. But the newest initiative, allowing enforcement officials to enter schools, churches, health care facilities and other sensitive locations, has intensified the fear.

Democrats and immigration groups said they planned to watch for potential violations of constitutional rights as Trump looks to take dramatic action to back up his promise of mass deportations.

“I can only describe it as a radical paradigm shift,” said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, an immigration advocacy group. “It’s almost like this administration is signaling, ‘Constitution be damned. We intend to carry out the most radical anti-immigrant agenda in this nation’s modern history.’”

A number of Trump’s early actions also set the stage for him to use the military in immigration enforcement and border security, another space that may be ripe for legal challenges. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency was designed to justify the use of Department of Defense resources, and the Pentagon will begin deploying hundreds of active duty troops to the border in the days ahead.

But he went further than just suggesting the military support construction of a border wall. He signed another order directing the Department of Defense, within 10 days, to form a plan to “to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion” — giving the military an explicit role in immigration enforcement.

There are questions about whether it is legal to use the military to engage in civil immigration enforcement, as current law requires immigration officers to conduct the fast-tracked deportation authority known as “expedited removal.” The moves could also clash with the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1870s law that limits the use of regular federal troops for domestic policing purposes.

Beyond potential court challenges, Trump officials have a load of work ahead to deliver on the president’s early asks for assessments and recommendations for how to proceed on a number of policy fronts, including about whether the country’s refugee program can resume.

“There’s a lot still left to do,” Krikorian said, adding that many of Trump’s early actions were “more like an instruction or a road map. So we’re going to have to see what the follow through is like.”

Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.