Trump Launches New Immigration Measures, Prompting Abrupt Shift in U.S. Border Policy

Minutes after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump laid out a series of tough actions he’s taking to stop border crossings between ports of entry and begin deporting some of millions of people in the U.S. without authorization. Those policy changes were expected to start rolling in fast in the first hours and days of his second term after a campaign in which Trump vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in the country’s history.

Among his first actions back in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the border, which will free up military funding to build more sections of a border wall, support operations to stop border crossings, and send troops to the southern border to, as he said in his Inaugural Address, “repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

In a sweeping proclamation that “the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States,” Trump proclaimed the suspension of physical entry of “aliens engaged in the invasion” across the southern border and directed his Cabinet members to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion,” including expressly revoking the right for migrants to invoke an asylum claim.

In separate executive actions, Trump has attempted to redefine birthright citizenship, which is currently protected by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, and he suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Trump also ordered the Secretary of Defense—for which his nominee, Pete Hegseth, is not yet confirmed—to assign the U.S. Northern Command, a joint military command set up after 9/11 to combat terrorism and attacks on the U.S., “the mission to seal the borders.” And he designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Read More: Breaking Down All of Trump’s Day 1 Presidential Actions

In his Inaugural Address, Trump also said he would reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy that demands people seeking asylum wait outside the U.S. while their cases are considered—a move that will require cooperation from the Mexican government. Trump also pledged to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to pressure state and local police to arrest and help deport foreign-born people in the U.S. illegally.

The impact on the border of Trump’s Inauguration was immediate. Moments after Trump was formally sworn in, people waiting at border crossings in Mexico reportedly had their asylum appointments canceled by Customs and Border Protection, and received messages that the federal program that used a phone app called CBP One to set up appointments for asylum seekers was now canceled. The Biden Administration started that program to create a more orderly system for people to seek asylum and deter migrants from crossing between points of entry and surrendering themselves to Border Patrol agents in order to have their claim heard.

Many of Trump’s actions will likely be challenged in court, as they were during his first term. When Trump declared a similar national emergency on the border in 2019 in order to justify using military funds for building a border wall, courts blocked the move, saying a military construction project needed to be in support of a military deployment. 

Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program, says that Trump is overreaching with his use of emergency powers, especially since the number of people crossing the border unlawfully has been declining in recent months. “This is an abuse of emergency powers for the same reason it was before,” Goitein says, “Emergency powers are not meant to address long-standing problems that Congress has the power to solve.”