Washington – A day after President Trump issued a dozen executive orders cracking down on illegal immigration, lawyers and a coalition of states led by California are gearing up for court battles against the administration, which learned from previous legal mistakes made during Trump's first term.
Among several major changes in Trump's executive order are the declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, the revocation of birthright citizenship and the designation of drug traffickers as foreign terrorist organizations.
Immigrants and those hoping to immigrate to America are reeling from the news. Thousands of migrants are stranded indefinitely in Mexico after Trump suspended the use of a phone app and canceled long-standing appointments for asylum seekers seeking legal entry. Afghan refugees freed to travel to the US are now in limbo after Trump suspended refugee resettlement. Undocumented immigrants in Chicago and other cities across the country are staying home for fear of planned immigration raids.
Legal experts said the subtle changes to some of the orders reflect the Trump administration's efforts to pre-empt legal challenges.
“Some of these things they've done to advance a lot of the problems they had last time,” said Amy Fischer, director of Amnesty International USA's Refugee and Migrant Rights Program.
Opponents of Trump's orders wasted no time in pushing back. A coalition of 17 other states with California, the District of Columbia, and the city of San Francisco. The case was filed against the central government on Tuesday To end Trump's effort Birthright citizenshipClaiming that it is unconstitutional and asking the court to stop it from going into effect.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday night against the birthright citizenship order and a legal filing in an ongoing case over the cancellation of asylum-seeker appointments at the border. The organization also plans to file a lawsuit this week challenging Trump's use of executive authority, said Naina Gupta, policy director of the left-leaning American Immigration Council. “stop input” Certain immigrants do so to the detriment of national interests.
The ability to claim asylum at the US-Mexico border has been suspended. At Trump's behest, “Until I publish a discovery that the invasion of the southern border has been halted.”
“Trump's barrage of executive orders is calculated to create fear, confusion, anxiety, and the capitulation and cooperation of elected officials to the mass deportation agenda,” said Navreen Shah, ACLU's deputy director of government affairs. “We fear that if we allow Trump to use this kind of death grip on our communities now for immigration enforcement, it will embolden Trump to come back again and again for our civil rights.”
Longtime critics of illegal immigration praised the president's actions. “Thanks to Donald Trump, America's borders will be much more secure,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) said in a post on X.
House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in a statement, “Nothing exemplifies a new day in America more than President Trump's unwavering commitment to border security and enforcing our nation's laws. ”
Some of Trump's orders make what opponents were quick to point out as legally dubious claims. For example, birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
“He can't unilaterally change it,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday night. “But that's the conversation — the chaos — he wants to create.
In designating drug cartels as terrorist groups, Trump is preparing to call them out Alien Enemies Act 1798 against them. But applying the law, courts must acknowledge that criminal gangs 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 deemed an enemy of the United States during wartime.
“Whether it's a war or an invasion, it's going to be litigated, and there's good law against the president on that,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
But challenging some of Trump's policies will remain a challenge. Amnesty International's Fischer said it was difficult to make a clean sweep of the policies laid out in the executive orders.
Other aspects of the directives have less concrete legal precedent. Fischer pointed to the freeze on refugee admissions, which Trump did during his first term as president. This time, the executive order requires immigration officials to send a report to the president within 90 days detailing whether it would be “in the best interests of the United States” to resume refugee processing.
Tom Javeds, a former senior attorney at the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration, said Trump's new administration is more cautious and aggressive than the past. Policies like Remain in Mexico, which he previously implemented, could be implemented more quickly and effectively. Under that policy, asylum seekers must stay across the border while their cases are adjudicated.
But the more “sexy” provisions of some executive orders often go untested legally, Javetz said. During his inauguration speech, Trump said he would deploy the military to the border to fight illegal immigration.
“The realignment of the U.S. military's mission for border security, the declaration of a national emergency and all of this invasion rhetoric taken to the extreme, would be completely unprecedented and transformative,” Javeds said.
Trump's opponents are waiting to see written policies emerging from executive orders. Litigation strategy will come down to how the orders are implemented, Javetz said.
Some of those principles began to unravel on Tuesday. In a news release, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Secretary Benjamin Huffman had issued an order ending the broad use of the Temporary Humanitarian Program, which was expanded to provide legal protection to 1.5 million immigrants under then-President Biden. Another order is cancelled Long term guidelines It prevents immigration enforcement in critical places like hospitals and churches.
“Criminals can no longer hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, instead relying on them to use common sense,” the release said.
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.