Trump launches promised deportation program on 1st day in office

article

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds the Bible during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Pho

Expand

President Donald Trump announced his plan to launch the "largest deportation program in American history" on the first day of his second term in the White House.

Trump's deportation plan details

Trump’s plan includes ending President Joe Biden’s catch-and-release policies, reinstating "Remain in Mexico," building the border wall, ending asylum for people crossing the border illegally, cracking down on criminal sanctuaries, and "enhancing vetting and screening of aliens," according to a White House email on Monday.

Trump’s deportation operation will address the record border "crossings of criminal aliens under the prior administration."

He is also planning to suspend refugee resettlement, and will deploy the Armed Forces, including the National Guard, to engage in border security, deploying troops to the border to help law enforcement officials.

A key announcement was the effort to end birthright citizenship — one of Trump’s most sweeping immigration efforts yet.

The Associated Press noted that birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen, a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment that was ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War and assured citizenship for all, including Black people.

It applies to children born to someone in the country illegally or in the U.S. on a tourist or student visa who plan to return to their home country. Trump’s effort to end that right is certain to face steep legal challenges, and the incoming White House official provided no information on how he intends to carry it out.

According to the White House email, the president will begin the process of designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and use the Alien Enemies Act to remove them.

Additionally, "the Department of Justice will seek the death penalty as the appropriate punishment for heinous crimes against humanity, including those who kill law enforcement officers and illegal migrants who maim and murder Americans," the email states.

"I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came," Trump said to applause as he spoke during his inauguration moments after being sworn into office.

What legal challenges could Trump's plan face?

The other side:

The actual execution of Trump's immigration agenda is certain to face legal and logistical challenges.

Many of the steps in the proposal are similar to previous ones during Trump’s first administration that also faced lawsuits. Others — like the effort to end the constitutional right to automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. — marked sweeping new strategies that are expected to receive pushback in the courts, the Associated Press reported.

The orders previewed were less specific about how Trump will fulfill his pledge of mass deportations of at least 11 million people already in the country illegally. One edict will equip immigration officers with "authorities needed" to enforce the law.

What they're saying:

Pope Francis said Sunday that Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations would be a "disgrace," as he weighed in on the incoming U.S. president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him "not Christian" for wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

"It is my hope that under your leadership the American people will prosper and always strive to build a more just society, where there is no room for hatred, discrimination or exclusion," the pope added in a telegram to the new president.

Is Chicago first?

Dig deeper:

Officials told the Associated Press that federal immigration officers would target more than 300 people with histories of egregious, violent crimes in an operation concentrated in the Chicago area. The raids were set to begin Tuesday, but according to The Washington Post, the feds are reconsidering Chicago and the incoming administration "hasn’t made a decision yet."

U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officers arrest only a fraction of their targets in such operations, though Trump is expected to cast a wider net. Trump aides have said they will arrest others, such as spouses or roommates, who are not targets but happen to be in the country illegally.

"It’ll begin very early, very quickly," Trump said the Saturday before inauguration, adding: "I can’t say which cities because things are evolving. And I don’t think we want to say what city. You’ll see it firsthand."

What about sanctuary cities?

What's next:

City, county and state officials in America’s sanctuary jurisdictions – or places that offer a range of protection for immigrants, particularly those living in the U.S. illegally – received threatening letters with a blueprint for how the Trump administration could attack cities that resist deportations. Sanctuary jurisdictions don’t typically cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

"You and your subordinates could potentially face up to 20 years in prison," America First Legal, a group led by current and former advisors to Trump, said in the letter. Its president, Stephen Miller, will be deputy chief of policy in the new administration and is a longtime architect of Trump's immigration policies.

Has the U.S. done mass deportations before?

The backstory:

Two other presidents have overseen mass deportations in the U.S. The Dwight Eisenhower administration carried them out in the 1950s and Franklin Roosevelt’s administration did the same in the 1930s. Both targeted Mexicans.

Estimates of the number of people taken out of the U.S. in the 1950s deportation range from several hundred thousand to 1.3 million. Many were U.S. citizens descended from Mexican migrants. An FDR-era deportation ejected an estimated 1 million or more people, most of whom held U.S. citizenship.