Trump signs sweeping immigration orders, deploys troops to border

On his first day in office, President Trump signed a series of executive orders designed to reshape the nation's immigration system from the ground up. The orders revoke birthright citizenship, declare a national emergency at the southern border, and authorize the deployment of military troops to enforce immigration law. Trump framed the actions as essential to national security, invoking language from his inaugural address about a government that funds the defense of foreign borders while neglecting its own.

The legal foundation for these moves rests partly on an 18th-century statute—the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—which Trump explicitly cited as he outlined his plans. That law, last invoked during World War II to intern Japanese, German, and Italian nationals, permits the president to arrest, imprison, or deport immigrants from countries deemed hostile to the U.S. during wartime. By designating drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, Trump has set the stage to potentially use this mechanism to conduct rapid deportations without the legal safeguards normally required. Legal scholars question whether courts will accept this interpretation, but a conservative Supreme Court majority may prove sympathetic to the administration's arguments.

The orders dismantle much of what the Biden administration built. They end asylum programs that had granted temporary legal status and work authorization to more than 1.5 million people. They dissolve an interagency task force created to reunite families separated during Trump's first term—a separation that left more than 1,400 children still unaccounted for as of April. They restore the Remain in Mexico policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait across the border while their cases proceed through immigration court. And they suspend refugee admissions for at least 90 days, cutting off a program that resettled more than 100,000 people in the previous fiscal year, the highest number in three decades.

The human toll is already visible. On Monday, hundreds of asylum seekers learned that CBP One, a phone app through which they had scheduled legal entry appointments, had been shut down. Their interviews were canceled. Tens of thousands of migrants—some of whom had waited more than six months for their turn—now find themselves stranded in Mexico with no clear path forward. In recent months, more migrants had actually entered the country legally through CBP One appointments than had been arrested after crossing illegally, a fact that underscores the shift in policy direction.

The orders also reverse enforcement priorities that had generally limited immigration arrests to recent border-crossers, serious criminals, and national security threats. Under the new rules, most people in the country illegally could face detention and deportation. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, has said the administration will continue to focus on immigrants with criminal records, but the broad language of the orders creates the foundation for what immigration advocates call collateral arrests—the detention of undocumented immigrants who have no criminal history during enforcement operations targeting others.

Congress has funded only 41,500 detention beds at a cost of $3.4 billion annually. As of late December, more than 39,000 immigrants were already in custody awaiting deportation proceedings. The scale of Trump's promised deportation effort—described as the largest in U.S. history and overseen by Stephen Miller and Homan, architects of the zero-tolerance policy that separated families in the first term—will require substantial additional funding that Republicans, who hold slim majorities in Congress, may struggle to secure.

In California, where immigration advocates and state officials have prepared for this moment, Attorney General Rob Bonta has pledged to defend the state's sanctuary laws and to sue the Trump administration if it attempts to use the National Guard or military for mass deportations. The state has already sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times. Some local law enforcement leaders, including the Riverside County Sheriff, have signaled willingness to circumvent state law to assist federal immigration agents, a move Bonta said his office will not tolerate. Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, organized a vigil for Tuesday night to create a safe space for immigrants to learn about the orders and their rights. "The community of Los Angeles is concerned by what is coming," she said, "but we're not cowering in panic."

The legal challenges have already begun. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Monday contesting the birthright citizenship order, arguing that reinterpreting the 14th Amendment through executive action exceeds presidential authority. Courts will likely strike down some of Trump's orders, but the conservative Supreme Court majority may allow others to stand despite constitutional concerns. A UC Davis political science professor noted that many of Trump's first-term executive orders on immigration withstood legal challenges, and the current court composition may prove even more deferential to executive power on border and immigration matters.