Trump declares emergency at national border to crack down on immigration | Trump administration
Donald Trump on Monday began issuing a series of executive orders aimed at delivering on his core campaign promise to crack down on immigration and unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Monday, Trump signed an order at the White House declaring a national emergency and paving the way for sending U.S. troops to the southern border. He also attempted a bold move to redefine who can be an American under the U.S. Constitution.
“I will declare a national emergency on our southern border,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday, shortly after being sworn in in Washington. “All illegal entry will stop immediately and we will begin sending millions of criminal aliens back to where they came from.”
Speaking in the Capitol rotunda just feet from Joe Biden, Trump delivered a scathing rebuke of his predecessor's border policies. His vow to declare a national emergency drew a standing ovation from his supporters and some Democrats in attendance.
Ahead of the inauguration, an incoming White House official previewed other border-related actions the new president will prioritize on his first days in office, saying Trump is targeting a moratorium on refugee resettlement for “at least four months,” End asylum” and resume refugee resettlement. First-term policies forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were processed and directed the federal government not to recognize the children of undocumented children, ending birthright citizenship for immigration guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The president cannot unilaterally change the Constitution, and civil rights groups have vowed to immediately challenge the directive in court.
The administration also plans to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and resume construction of a tall barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump spent heavily on during his first administration but that Biden halted when he took office in 2021 .
The official gave no details about how the administration plans to execute such a massive series of immigration operations, which will almost certainly face legal and logistical challenges.
“As Commander in Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that's exactly what I will do. We will do it at an unprecedented level,” Trump said in his inaugural address said, earning applause.
He also repeated a lie he spun on the campaign trail: “many” immigrants arriving in the U.S. illegally come from foreign prisons and mental hospitals. There is no evidence that this is true. Later in a speech on Capitol Stage 1, Trump went further, falsely claiming that unauthorized immigration was driving up crime rates in the United States. Numerous studies show that immigrants do not commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Americans, quite the opposite in fact.
During the rally, Trump signed an executive order undoing a series of Biden-era immigration actions, including establishing an interagency task force dedicated to helping immigrants survive the zero-tolerance policies of the first Trump administration. Families separated at southern border reunited.
Immigrant communities across the country on Monday awaited Trump's promise to launch “the largest deportation program in American history,” with large-scale immigration raids expected as early as Tuesday morning, possibly in Chicago and other cities.
When he took office, the new administration abruptly halted use of a mobile app Biden created called CBP One, which allowed migrants to make appointments to enter the U.S. at border ports of entry, where some waited for months to grab limited daily supplies. One of the reservations.
“We were hoping that they would respect the appointments that had been arranged but clearly they haven't. So it's really concerning because all these people are going to be put at risk and they're going to be thinking about what to do next. That could end up being at the border They are being kidnapped in cities, trying to cross dangerous areas and even dying,” said Jesús de la Torre, Assistant Director of Global Migration at the Hope for Borders Institute. Paso, Texas told The Guardian on Monday afternoon.
“Until now, it has been nearly impossible to obtain asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border without CBP One,” he said.
In his speech, Trump also announced that he would reinstate the first administration's so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers north to await their U.S. immigration hearings on the Mexican side of the border. , which will bring greater danger to the court. Biden reversed that policy, allowing people to wait in the United States. Mexico announced Monday it would cooperate.
Hard-liners have been duly appointed to key positions, including border czar Tom Homan and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
To facilitate deportations, Trump is expected to order the construction of camps to hold targeted immigrants, possibly with military involvement.
CBP One, meanwhile, is an effort under Biden to deter illegal border crossings and encourage migrants to seek official permission to enter the United States, often to file asylum claims and live and work legally in the process.
Thousands of people are waiting on the Mexican side of the border until they get an appointment rather than risk crossing without authorization, turning themselves in to Border Patrol or evading authorities. Now, those entering the U.S. this way fear deportation, while those waiting daily south of the border for CBP One are stymied.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website said Monday afternoon that the application is “no longer available and existing appointments have been cancelled.”
“It makes no sense that many people have waited weeks or months for a chance to safely arrive at a U.S. port of entry,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Washington-based Human Rights First .
“DHS officials have widely praised the app for improving management of the U.S. southern border and making processing orderly and secure. This move by the incoming administration will only benefit the cartels and smugglers they claim to Eliminating these people is actually cruelty rather than effective management of our borders.”
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