WASHINGTON – President Trump took steps Monday to fundamentally and dramatically change the way the country handles immigration. He said he would sign executive orders expanding deportations, declare a national emergency at the southern border and station military troops there.
Trump said he would immediately stop all illegal entries at the border, adding that he would invoke an 18th-century law to carry out his plan to rid the country of people living here without authorization.
“We have an administration that has committed unlimited resources to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend America’s borders or, more importantly, its own people,” Trump said in his inaugural address in the Capitol Rotunda.
In the months before his election and taking office, Trump promised to overhaul the immigration system and border security on “Day 1” through executive orders, bypassing the regular legislative process. At his inauguration ceremony at noon, Trump said he would sign the executive orders later on Monday.
The executive branch has broad authority over immigration issues, but many of the president's orders are sure to be quickly challenged in court.
Trump has promised the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, to be carried out under the leadership of Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, the architects of his first administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to thousands of migrant parents being separated from their children became. Trump's attempts are being stymied without significant additional funding from Congress, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.
Illegal border crossings have fallen sharply over the past year and are currently at their lowest level since Trump took office. The emergency declaration allows Trump to release federal funds to finance border wall construction, as he did in 2019.
In June, the Biden administration began effectively blocking most migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The restrictions did not apply to those waiting for appointments to enter legally at official ports of entry.
On Monday, hundreds of asylum seekers learned that their use of CBP One, a phone app through which they made appointments, had been suspended and their scheduled interviews had been canceled. Tens of thousands of migrants, some of whom had waited more than six months for an interview, are now stuck in Mexico. In recent months, more migrants entered legally with CBP One appointments than those arrested after entering the U.S. illegally.
“As commander in chief, I have no greater responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I will do,” Trump said. “We’re going to do it at a level that no one has ever seen before.”
Another order would classify drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.
Other orders will bring back policies from Trump's first term that Biden had abandoned, such as “Remain in Mexico.” According to this regulation, asylum seekers must remain across the border while their asylum case is being decided.
Trump said he would end what conservatives call “catch and release,” the practice of releasing migrants from detention while they await the conclusion of often years-long cases in immigration court.
There is not enough space for federal authorities to hold all deportation detainees. Last Fiscal Year, Congress finances 41,500 beds at a cost of $3.4 billion. As of December 29, more than 39,000 immigrants were in detention pending deportation.
Trump said he would use the US military for border security efforts.
“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks that wreak havoc on U.S. crime Bring ground,” Trump said.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, last used during World War II to send people from Japan, Germany and Italy to internment camps, allowed the president to arrest, imprison or deport immigrants from a country considered an enemy during the war of the USA. Trump could use it to carry out quick deportations without the legal procedures normally required. But legal experts say courts would likely reject Trump's interpretation because it goes beyond what the law allows.
Brad Jones, a professor of political science at UC Davis, noted that many executive orders during Trump's first term withstood legal challenges, including those on the border wall and remaining in Mexico. With a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, challenges to him overstepping the allowed authority could ultimately be dismissed, Jones said.
“These executive orders, in my opinion, essentially set the stage for considering the border a war zone,” he said.
During a second speech at Emancipation Hall, Trump praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has supported a crackdown at the border and bused migrants to liberal states like New York and California. Trump repeated baseless claims that almost every country in the world was sending criminals to the United States and said Abbott would have to deal with them himself. But Trump boasted about promised border wall expansion and signaled that Abbott's situation would soon change.
“This wall is going to go up so quickly,” he said.
The Trump administration has planned a major immigration raid in Chicago this week, but Homan told news outlets that the officials are rethinking their plans because the leaked details endanger the agents. Other large immigrant communities, including Los Angeles, could be targeted in future raids.
In California, a law passed in 2018 in response to Trump's first administration limits state and local law enforcement's cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The California Values Law Prevents local police from detaining someone for a lengthy period of time for transfer to immigration custody, but allows them to notify federal officials of a person's release if they have convictions for certain crimes or serious misdemeanor convictions.
Some local law enforcement officers, including the Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco have signaled their willingness to circumvent the law to help immigration officials carry out deportations. Attempts to circumvent the law will not be tolerated, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said. “We are prepared to take action against any law enforcement agency that does not follow the law,” Bonta said Friday.
Bonta said he was also prepared to fight Trump in court. The California Department of Justice sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times.
“If he tries to get the National Guard or the military to take part in his mass deportations, if he tries to end birthright citizenship – a constitutional right – and that harms US citizens, if he tries to… To attack jurisdiction and the status of protected areas on the immigration side.” “We are ready to act from day one,” said Bonta.
Some California immigrants are already nervous after Border Patrol agents made dozens of arrests around Bakersfield this month, questioning people at Home Depot, gas stations and farms on their way to work.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said the organization organized a vigil Tuesday night to create a safe place for immigrants to gather and learn more about Trump's initial executive orders. She emphasized that because Los Angeles is considered a natural disaster area, immigration officials should not conduct enforcement actions there.
“The Los Angeles community is concerned about what is coming, but we are not panicking,” Salas said.
Castillo reported from Washington and Uranga reported from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Mexico City contributed to this report.