WASHINGTON – A day after President Trump issued a dozen executive orders to combat illegal immigration, advocates and a coalition of states led by California are preparing for litigation against an administration that appears to have learned from previous legal missteps during Trump's first term.
Among the many sweeping changes in Trump's orders were declaring a national emergency at the southern border, revoking citizenship and designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Immigrants and those hoping to immigrate to the United States are devastated by the news. Thousands of migrants are stuck indefinitely in Mexico after Trump stopped using a phone app and canceled long-standing appointments for asylum seekers to enter the country legally. Afghan refugees cleared to enter the United States are now in limbo after Trump suspended refugee resettlement. Undocumented immigrants in Chicago and other cities across the country stayed home for fear of planned immigration raids.
Legal experts said subtle changes to some of the orders reflected attempts by the Trump administration to preemptively head off legal challenges.
“One of the things they did was try to prevent many of the problems they encountered last time,” said Amy Fischer, director of the refugee and migrant rights program at Amnesty International USA.
Opponents of Trump's orders wasted no time in fighting back. California, a coalition of 17 other states plus the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, sued the federal government on Tuesday over Trump's attempt to abolish birthright law, calling it unconstitutional and asking the court to block it from taking effect.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Monday night over the initial citizenship order, filing a notice of claim in an ongoing case over the cancellation of appointments for asylum seekers at the border. Nayna Gupta, policy director at the left-leaning American Immigration Council, said the organization also plans to file a lawsuit this week against Trump's use of executive power “Suspend entry” certain immigrants if this would be detrimental to the national interest.
The ability to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border is suspended. according to Trump's orders, “Until I find that the invasion of the southern border has stopped.”
“Trump’s barrage of executive orders is designed to stoke fear, create chaos, incite fear and cause our elected officials to capitulate and cooperate with a mass deportation agenda,” said Naureen Shah, deputy director of government affairs at the ACLU . “If we allow Trump to exercise this kind of deadly grip on our communities now to enforce immigration, we fear it will embolden Trump to stand up for our civil rights again and again.”
Longtime critics of illegal immigration welcomed the president's actions. “Thanks to Donald Trump, America’s borders are becoming much more secure,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) in a post on X. Issa’s district runs along the border east of San Diego.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement: “Nothing exemplifies a new day in America more than President Trump’s unwavering commitment to border security and restoring enforcement of our laws Country.” ”
Some of Trump's orders are based on claims that opponents immediately called legally dubious. For example, the birthright to citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment.
“He can’t change this unilaterally,” Senator Alex Padilla (Democrat of California) said on CNN on Monday evening. “But that’s conversation – the chaos – he wants to create.”
And by classifying drug cartels as terrorist groups, Trump is preparing to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against them. However, applying the law would require courts to agree that criminal groups can be considered a nation at war with the United States. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows the president to arrest, imprison or deport immigrants from a country that was considered an enemy of the United States during the war.
“Whether it is a war or an invasion will be the subject of litigation, and there are good laws against the president on that issue,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
But challenging some of Trump's policies will be a challenge in itself. Amnesty International's Fischer said it was more difficult to clearly distinguish policies set out in executive orders that overlap and rely on each other.
There is less conclusive legal precedent for other aspects of the orders. Fischer referred to the pause in accepting refugees that Trump made during his first presidency. This time, the order requires immigration officials to submit a report to the president within 90 days detailing whether resuming refugee processing “would be in the interests of the United States.”
Tom Jawetz, a former senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration, said Trump's new administration is both more cautious and more aggressive than last time. The measures he previously implemented, such as “Remain” in Mexico, could be implemented more quickly and possibly more effectively. According to this regulation, asylum seekers must remain across the border while their case is being heard.
But the more “exotic” provisions of some executive orders are largely untested legally, Jawetz said. Trump said in his inaugural speech that he would send the military to the border region to combat illegal immigration.
“Focusing the U.S. military’s mission on border security, combined with a national emergency declaration and all of this invasion rhetoric taken to the extreme, could be completely unprecedented and transformative,” Jawetz said.
Trump's opponents are waiting to see the written guidelines resulting from the executive orders. The litigation strategy will depend on how the orders are implemented, said Jawetz.
Some of those policies began taking effect Tuesday. In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman had issued a directive ending the widespread use of temporary humanitarian programs that were expanded under then-President Biden to provide legal protection to 1.5 million immigrants . Another instruction is repealed long-standing guidelines that prevent immigration enforcement in sensitive locations such as hospitals and churches.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in American schools and churches to avoid arrest. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement agencies and instead trusts them to use common sense,” the press release said.
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.