Trump to issue 10 executive orders cracking down on border
President-elect Trump is set to sign off on 10 executive orders Monday, moving swiftly to crack down on immigration and drug cartels during his first day in office with a blitzkrieg of immigration actions.
An incoming White House official previewed the actions during a 15-minute call with reporters ahead of Trump’s inauguration proceedings.
Among the actions Trump is set to take are declaring a national emergency at the southern border to mobilize the military — and fast-track construction of his border wall — ending birthright citizenship, pausing refugee resettlement programs and designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Some of the actions stretch the bounds of executive authority and are sure to be immediately challenged by immigration and civil rights groups.
Officials on the call cast Trump's as a sweeping victory that created a “mandate to carry out the promises he made on the campaign trail that includes his pledge to secure the southern border and carry out the largest deportation of migrant criminals in history.”
Trump won the Electoral College by 86 votes, though his popular vote win was relatively slim; he won 49.9 percent of the vote, defeating Vice President Harris by more than 2 million votes.
The official said one coming order would “clarify the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States” — sending personnel to the border, pushing the Department of Defense to erect barriers, and to also greenlight the use of drones and other surveillance measures.
During the call, officials said they plan to end asylum — a right guaranteed under both U.S. and international law that allows those fleeing persecution to seek safety. Many migrants who cross the border are initially allowed into the country to seek the status, driving GOP claims the program is being abused.
Trump officials also said they would pause the refugee program — a similar status for those unable to remain in the country — for at least four months.
Trump also plans to sign an order ending birthright citizenship, a move that would directly contradict the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship for all born within the U.S.
Incoming administration officials seemed to acknowledge underlying issues with such a move, saying they would do so on a “prospective basis.”
“On a prospective basis, the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” the official said.
The administration did not preview any specific travel bans but said it would direct agencies to make recommendations on specific nationalities whose entries should be suspended.
Officials also said they would begin to seek the death penalty in some cases involving migrants.
“This action in particular, directs the Attorney General to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal aliens,” they said.
Incoming White House officials said they will reinstate “remain in Mexico,” a program known officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols during the first Trump administration, under which about 70,000 third-country asylum-seekers were forced to wait out their U.S. immigration case in Mexican border cities between 2019 and 2020.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she would not accept the return of the program and announced a new strategy to welcome back deported Mexican nationals.
Speaking at Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the Mexican government has been working on the new strategy since Trump announced mass deportation plans.
“Of course we don’t agree, but — in case it is done — we will receive them with access to the Mexican government’s welfare programs, access to health services for them and their families, transportation to their places of origin, access to telephone communications, and we will keep generating living conditions and creating a favorable environment to cater to their needs amid the repatriation of Mexicans,” Rodríguez said.
Trump’s Day 1 orders will also advance the process of declaring certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specifically designated global terrorists, potentially supercharging the law enforcement tools available against them under their current Transnational Criminal Organization designations.
Incoming officials specifically mentioned Tren de Aragua and MS-13, gangs that mostly operate in South and Central America, as targets for these new designations.
An official said the designations would allow the Trump administration to treat the gangs as irregular military forces “conducting a frontier incursion and invasion into the United States.”
Though the gangs mentioned on the call are Venezuelan and Salvadoran, the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-friendly advocacy group led by former Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, issued a statement Monday calling for FTO designations specifically for Mexican cartels.
The America First release did not name specific cartels, though it did accuse the Mexican government of “tolerating and even promoting organized crime.”
Updated at 10:45 a.m. EST
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