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President Donald Trump invoked muscular presidential powers to begin a sweeping crackdown on immigration following his inauguration on Monday.
CBS News reports that Trump tasked the military with border enforcement, moved to designate cartels and gangs as terrorist groups, shut down asylum and refugee admissions and attempted to terminate birthright citizenship.
He has issued a blitz of executive actions to start reshaping federal immigration and border policies, many of which are expected to face major legal challenges. Mr Trump said in his inaugural address, “As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is what I’m going to do.”
On his first day in office, Mr Trump took the following executive actions on immigration:
He suspended asylum and restarted border wall construction and “Remain in Mexico.” – He authorized officials to “repel, repatriate, or remove” migrants, suspending their “physical entry” into the US through his constitutional powers. The order allows the US government to stop adhering to American asylum law until Trump issues a “finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.”
Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, calling the situation there “a grave threat to our nation.” He ordered the Defense Department to more heavily involve the vast resources and manpower of the US military at the US-Mexico border, tasking officials to deploy “as many units or members of the Armed Forces” as needed to help the Department of Homeland Security obtain “complete operational control” of the border.
One of the most controversial of Trump’s orders was seeking to deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas. The 14th Amendment to the American Constitution says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump instructed officials to start the process of designating cartels and international gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. he sought to penalize the groups that largely control the illicit movement of migrants and drugs across the US southern border.
Trump suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program. it was an initiative that enjoyed broad bipartisan support. His order name-checked several communities, including Springfield, Ohio, where the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants garnered the national spotlight after Trump and allies accused the immigrants of eating pets.
Trump’s administration began dismantling the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Minutes after Mr Trump’s inauguration, officials shut down a phone app that enabled asylum-seekers in Mexico to request entry into the US. He also ordered the termination of an initiative that allowed migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly to the US if they had American sponsors.
Mr Trump laid the groundwork for mass deportation through another executive order. He called on officials to “promptly” expand detention sites to hold migrants and increase agreements with local law enforcement authorities so they can be deputized as immigration officers.
Trump also directed the attorney general to seek the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officers and unauthorized immigrants who commit “capital” crimes.
