As Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President on 20th Jan 2025, immigration law has been drastically changed with a range of executive orders.
Key themes of the Donald Trump Executive Orders:
- Biden-era policy rollback: The executive order has initiated a significant reversal of Immigration policies implemented during the previous term of President Joe Biden, related explicitly to enforcement priorities, legal immigration pathways, and refugee resettlement.
- Aggressive Enforcement and Border Control: The administration seeks to maximize immigration law enforcement, including expanding expedited removal, detention, and deputisation of local law enforcement.
- Restricting Access to Citizenship & Legal Pathways: The orders aim to limit birthright citizenship and severely restrict access to legal pathways, including asylum, humanitarian parole, and refugee programs.
- Elevated Security Concerns & Scrutiny: There is a strong emphasis on national security and terrorism, with plans to expand vetting procedures, implement travel bans, and designate cartels as terrorist organizations.
- Erosion of Humanitarian Protections: The administration demonstrates a strong push to limit or abolish humanitarian programs and protection, including refugee resettlement and Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
- Focus on “America First” & Economic Nationalism: The orders push a strong ‘America First’ agenda in trade and foreign policy, which could impact eligibility criteria for various work visas.
Let’s understand each executive order separately to understand its specifics and impact.
- Executive Order: Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Action:
- Key Idea: This order rescinds numerous Biden-era executive actions, signaling a significant shift in immigration policy.
- Impact: Reinstates policies that expand expedited removal, eliminate the right to seek bond, reinstate public charge rules, and weaken efforts to improve government efficiency.
- Executive Order: Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship:
- Key Idea: The specific order attempts to redefine birthright citizenship, limiting it to children of US citizens or lawful permanent residents.
- Impact: Deprives children of undocumented or nonimmigrant parents of US citizenship and potentially impacts the ability of US companies to recruit international talent.
- Executive Order: Protecting the American People Against Invasion:
- Key Idea: The order prioritizes maximal immigration enforcement, expanding detention, and deputizing local law enforcement.
- Impact: Calls for increased detention, creates federal Homeland Security Task Forces, mandates registration of undocumented people, and imposes sanctions on countries not accepting their nationals. Potentially violates the 14th Amendment.
- Executive Order: Securing Our Borders:
- Key Idea: Implements restrictive border policies, such as reinstating MPP (“Remain in Mexico”) and ending the CBP One app and CHNV humanitarian parole programs.
- Impact: Likely to lead to more people attempting to enter between ports of entry due to lack of legal pathways, detention facilities will reach maximum capacity.
- Executive Order: Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border:
- Key Idea: Mobilises the military for immigration enforcement, including border construction and deportations.
- Impact: Potentially in conflict with the INA, it could result in the military engaging in roles for which they lack training.
- Executive Order: Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats:
- Key Idea: Aim to implement travel bans and establish enhanced vetting procedures.
- Impact: Re-establishes extreme vetting, leading to delays and uncertainty for visa applicants and those already in the US.
- Executive Order: Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists:
- Key Idea: The order designates cartels as FTOs or SDGTs and seeks to use the Alien Enemies Act to expedite removals.
- Impact: Relies upon determining a “qualifying invasion” to justify using the Alien Enemies Act.
- Executive Order: Guaranteeing State Protections Against Invasion:
- Key Idea: The order invokes a supposed invasion to justify suspending all border entries, including asylum seekers.
- Impact: Conflicts with INA’s guaranteed access to asylum and faces legal challenges, premised on the far-fetched view that the unauthorized entry of migrants constitutes an “invasion.”
- Executive Order: Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States:
- Key Idea: The order directs the military to seal the borders and repel “invasion.”
- Executive Order: Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program:
- Key Idea: Suspends the US refugee program indefinitely.
- Impact: This severely limits refugee resettlement, leading to further scrutiny.
- Executive Order: Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government:
- Key Idea: President Trump’s specific executive order restricts federal recognition of gender to male and female.
- Impact: It has significant and harmful effects on transgender and non-binary individuals, creating hardship and increasing the risk of mistreatment, abuse, and violence in detention.
- Executive Order: America First Trade Policy:
- Key Idea: The order reviews trade agreements and USMCA, impacting visa categories.
- Impact: This could lead to a stricter interpretation of job categories and qualifications for TN visas and impact other treaty-based visa categories.
- Executive Order: America First Policy Directive to the Secretary of State:
- Key Idea: The order prioritizes “American interests” in foreign policy.
- Impact: Likely to reinstate Buy American, Hire American policies, creating barriers for US businesses and hurting economic growth.
Conclusion:
If we compare the current executive orders to Donald Trump’s previous ones, they seem similar. The orders represent a drastic shift in US Immigration policy, making it more restrictive and enforcement-focused. Multiple lawsuits have already been filed regarding birthright citizenship. We can expect the same with the other executive orders, which will decide how we, as Immigration attorneys, determine our clients’ future course of action.