Trump's 5 biggest moves on immigration so far

President Trump released a flurry of immigration actions this week, signing a series of orders targeting the border and ramping up enforcement.

While Trump has long pledged to address illegal immigration, many of his actions targeted longstanding legal pathways.

“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do,” he said in his inaugural address.

Immigration advocates describe the actions as yet another example of Trump cruelty, targeting vulnerable people while causing further unrest at the border in ways that won’t make Americans safer.

Here’s a look at Trump’s five biggest moves on immigration during his first week in office:

Birthright citizenship

Trump signed an order on Day One to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to many noncitizen parents.

It’s a move that directly counters the Constitution, which grants citizenship to anyone born in U.S. territory regardless of the status of their parents.

The order generated some of the first lawsuits — and legal victories — against the Trump administration.

Twenty-two different Democrat-led states sued over the order, as did groups including the American Civil Liberties Union. And a four-group band of states led by Washington scored a temporary injunction blocking the order for the next two weeks.

“I've been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, said during the hearing.

The order was broader than just targeting children of those who may not be in the country legally. It applied to anyone in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa, a status that also includes those on work visas, raising numerous questions for how the children of those lawfully present would be viewed under U.S. law.

Refugee program suspended

Another order from Trump paused the U.S. refugee program, leaving the program under review for three months.

The order calls for the Departments of Homeland Security and State to issue a report within 90 days detailing whether it’s in the nation’s interests to resume the admission of refugees.

The secretaries of State and Homeland Security will submit a report every 90 days until it is found that it is appropriate to resume refugee admissions, the order states. Until then, refugee admissions will remain suspended.

Though the order was not set to take effect until Monday, both agencies immediately curtailed their refugee operations.

The State Department suspended refugee flights, saying it was “coordinating with implementing partners to suspend refugee arrivals to the United States and cease processing activities.”

And an email reviewed by The Hill that was sent to staffers who process refugee cases at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also directed them not to “make any final decisions (approval, denial closure) on any refugee application.”

“The refugee program is not just a humanitarian lifeline through which the U.S. has shown global leadership. It represents the gold standard of legal immigration pathways in terms of security screening, community coordination, and mutual economic benefit,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, which helps resettle refugees, said in a statement when the order was first announced.

Shutting down the CBP One app

After Trump took office, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol suspended the CBP One App, cancelling all outstanding appointments made by migrants without visas who sought to enter the United States through legal ports of entry.

CBP One was a key component of the Biden administration’s efforts to channel migrants through legal pathways to seek refuge in the United States, one they also used to bring a more orderly process at the border.

Shutting down the app left in limbo those who have been waiting months just to get an appointment.

It also sparked criticism from immigration advocates who said the Trump administration was targeting those who have sought to come to the U.S. through legal channels.

The Trump administration this week also shut down the Safe Mobility portal, another initiative of the Biden administration that established offices across Latin America to help immigrants find legal pathways to the U.S. and dissuade them from migrating illegally.

Militarizing the border

Trump signed a series of orders directing increased military presence at the southern border.

He signed a proclamation Monday evening declaring a national emergency at the border, a move that will mobilize additional resources to the region.

The declaration will allow the Trump administration to deploy Pentagon forces and resources to help complete construction of the border wall and also allows for surveillance at the border, including the use of uncrewed aerial systems.

Trump also signed an executive order directing U.S. Northern Command to draft detailed operational plans for the border. That directive came in an order declaring an “invasion” there.

The Pentagon is sending around 1,000 Army soldiers and 500 Marines to the border, building on an existing practice of relying on troops to support existing immigration agents.

But the White House’s nods to the potential for more troops raises questions over whether military presence at the border could eventually violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars troops from carrying out domestic law enforcement duties.

Beyond potential legal issues, immigration advocates are also concerned about having armed troops in close proximity to migrants.

“Military people are trained for a very aggressive, bellicose scenario, not necessarily for crowd control,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“And so we feel that there are other types of law enforcement agencies that are trained for that, and that are best suited to be at the border, and they are already at the border.”

Boasting over the border

While Trump has taken a significant number of immigration actions, in some cases his team also sought to take credit for ongoing immigration enforcement actions.

The White House on Friday shared an image of migrants boarding a plane, saying “deportations have begun.”

The photo was also emblazoned with the words, “Promises made. Promises kept.”

Of course, deportations never stopped under President Biden, and the statement was mocked by immigration experts.

“Are these people seriously trying to suggest the deportation flights have not already been going on?” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, wrote on X.

“They’re lying to you. The Biden administration had already ramped up deportations from the border to a higher level than it was under the Trump admin.”

The photo of migrants boarding a plane to be deported was reportedly returning a group of Guatemalan citizens, a nation that accepted hundreds of deportation flights during the Biden administration.

Government accounts on Friday also sought to highlight migrants arrests, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) touting it had made 538 arrests and lodged 373 detainers as of Thursday night.

However, those figures are also not a sharp departure from the levels that were under Biden, with Reichlin-Melnick saying the Trump administration was “slap[ping] a ‘mass deportation’ sticker on the side of normal ICE operations.”

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