Washington – President Trump on Monday took steps to fundamentally and drastically change how the country handles immigration, saying he would sign executive orders to increase deportations, declare a national emergency at the southern border and deploy military troops there.
Trump has said he will immediately halt all illegal entry at the border and said he will invoke an 18th-century law to implement his plan to remove people here without permission.
“We have a government that has committed unlimited funds to secure foreign borders, but refuses to protect America's borders or, more importantly, its own people,” Trump said in his inauguration speech in the Capitol Rotunda.
In the months leading up to his election and inauguration, Trump promised to overhaul the immigration system and border security on “Day 1” through executive orders that bypassed the regular legislative process. At his noon inauguration, Trump said he would sign the executive orders later Monday.
The executive branch has extensive authority over immigration-related matters, but many of the president's orders are sure to face swift legal challenge.
Trump has promised the largest deportation effort in US history under the direction of Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, the architects of his first administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents from their children. Trump's efforts will be stymied without substantial additional funding from Congress, where Republicans hold slim majorities.
Illegal border crossings have fallen sharply over the past year, compared to current levels Very little of what they were Since Trump left office. The emergency declaration allows Trump to unlock federal resources to fund the construction of the border wall, as he did in 2019.
In June, the Biden administration began effectively detaining most migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border. Restrictions do not apply to persons awaiting appointments for lawful entry at official ports of entry.
On Monday, hundreds of asylum seekers learned that their use of the phone app CBP One had been terminated and their scheduled interviews had been canceled. Tens of thousands of migrants, some of whom waited more than six months for interviews, are now stranded in Mexico. In recent months, more immigrants have entered the U.S. illegally than have been apprehended with CBP One appointments.
“As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to protect our country from threats and invasions, and that's what I'm going to do,” Trump said. “We will do it on a scale that no one has ever seen before.”
Another order would designate drug traffickers and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.
Other orders would bring back policies from Trump's first term, such as Biden's stay in Mexico. Under that policy, asylum seekers must stay across the border while their asylum cases are adjudicated.
Trump said he would stop referring to conservatives as “catch and release.”
Federal officials don't have enough space to hold everyone in deportation proceedings. Last fiscal year, Congress Funded 41,500 beds At a cost of $3.4 billion. As of December 29, more than 39,000 immigrants were detained pending deportation proceedings.
Trump said he would use the US military for border security.
“By implementing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and overwhelming power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks that bring devastating crimes to American soil,” Trump said.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, used during World War II to send people from Japan, Germany, and Italy to internment camps, allows the president to arrest, imprison, or deport immigrants from a country considered an enemy of the United States during wartime. Trump could use it Conducting expedited deportations without the legal processes normally required. But legal experts say courts may strike down Trump's interpretation as going beyond what the law allows.
Brad Jones, a political science professor at UC Davis, noted that several executive orders in Trump's first term have withstood court challenges, including the border wall and the stay in Mexico. Jones said that with a conservative Supreme Court majority, challenges against him overstepping the discretionary powers could ultimately be struck down.
“These executive orders, in my view, formed the basis for treating the border as a war zone,” he said.
During a second speech at Emancipation Hall, Trump praised Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, who supported a crackdown on the border and transported immigrants to liberal states like New York and California. Trump repeated baseless claims that every country in the world was sending criminals to the US, saying Abbott should deal with them himself. But Trump has signaled that Abbott's situation will soon change, bragging about his promised border wall expansion.
“That wall is going to go up really fast,” he said.
The Trump administration is planning a major immigration raid in Chicago this week, but Homan told news agencies Officials rethink their plans as leaked details put agents at risk. Other large immigrant communities, including Los Angeles, could be targeted in future trials.
In California, a 2018 law passed in response to Trump's first administration restricts state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials. The California Values Act Local police are barred from detaining someone overtime for transfer to immigration detention, but allow them to notify federal agents about releasing a person if they have certain felony or high-level misdemeanor charges.
Some local law enforcement leaders, Including the Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has shown that immigration agents are willing to break the law to help with deportations. Attempts to break the law will not be tolerated, California Atty. General Rob Ponta said. “We are ready to take action against any law enforcement agency that does not follow the law,” Bonta said on Friday.
Bonda said he is ready to fight Trump in court. The California Department of Justice has since filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration.
“If he tries to call in the National Guard or the military to participate in his mass deportation, if he wants to end birthright citizenship — a constitutional right — that would harm American citizens, if he tries to attack sanctuary jurisdiction and status on the immigration side, we're ready to act on day one,” he said. Bonda said.
Some California immigrants are already on edge after being raided by Border Patrol agents Dozens of arrests around Bakersfield This month, Home Depot, gas stations and farm workers were interviewed.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said Tuesday night's vigil was organized to create a safe space for immigrants to gather to learn more about Trump's preliminary executive orders. He insisted that because Los Angeles is considered a natural disaster area, immigration agents should not conduct enforcement operations there.
“The Los Angeles community is worried about what's coming, but we're not panicking,” Salas said.
Castillo announced from Washington and Urangi from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell contributed to this report.
