Trump declares emergency at border
Orders lay groundwork for military to repel southern 'invasion'
By: Lauren Villagran
and Bert Jansen
USA Today
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Monday [01/20/2025] declared a national border emergency and ordered the U.S. armed forces to repel "forms of invasion" at the U.S.-Mexico border, including illegal migration and drug trafficking.
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The executive orders - published late Monday [01/20/2025] - appeared to lay the groundwork for Trump's promised crackdown on immigration, including ending birthright citizenship for the children of some foreigners.
..... "All illegal entry will be immediately halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of illegal aliens back to the places from which they came," the declaration states.
..... The administration also plans to use the military to target drug cartels as "global terrorists" and use troops to combat them. white House officials declined to provide details on the rules of engagement.
..... In one of the first actions, the new administration turned off a function of the CBO One app that allowed migrants make appointments to enter the country at a port of entry. U.S. customs and Border Protection was previously letting up to 1,450 migrants a day apply for entry using the app.
..... Migrants with appointments after Trump's noun inauguration saw their hopes crushed. On the Mexican side of an international bridge to El Paso, Texas, more than two dozen men, women and children form Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela were waiting for their 1 PM. appointment.
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The expected declaration of a national emergency comes as illegal border crossings are at their lowest level in more than five years. Earlier this month, [01/2025] U.S. customs and Border Protection reported roughly 1,000 migrant encounters daily, from California to Texas - down 75% from a year ago.
..... Elizabeth Goitein, senior director for liberty and national security at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said the declaration of a national emergency at the border unlocks powers in 150 provisions of law.
Executive orders on border security, immigration
..... Trump has long promised numerous executive actions to secure the border on "Day One," and the 10 order represent an initial tranche of directives, White House officials said.
..... One order would end the birthright citizenship that has been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to any child born in the United States, a right enshrined in the U.S. constitution in the years following the Civil War. The order aims to deny citizenship to children born to some foreign nationals in the country illegally.
..... Another order will declare criminal cartels as "global terrorist groups," allowing the deployment of the military. In his inaugural speech, Trump said he would invoke the Alien enemies Act of 1798 to combat criminal gangs with foreign members.
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Chad Wolf, a former acting Secretary of Homeland Security who is now executive director of the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank, said the executive order designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations will be key to fighting organized crime and trafficking.
Immigrant advocates promise to fight back
..... Immigrant advocacy groups were anticipating the sweeping executive order and have pledged to fight them through advocacy and lawsuits.
..... One of the first court actions landed Monday [01/20/2025] in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
..... An El Paso-based immigrant advocacy organization field a motion in an existing case against the Department of Homeland Security. In the new filing, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center said by canceling the CBP One appointments at the border, the new administration has terminated "the only way an individual who arrived in the United States at the southern border could retain the right to seek asylum.
..... Paige Austin, supervising litigation attorney at Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights advocacy organization, cited advocates' previous victories against Trump's attempts to eliminate the Deferred Acton for Childhood Arrivals program, place a citizenship question on the census and to expand expedited removal.
..... The new administration may also face litigation should Trump use the emergency declaration to move Pentagon funding to border security, including building fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump turns to act intended for war time
..... Despite a pledge to reduce illegal immigration during his first term, Trump never achieved the level or annual pace of deportations that former President Barack Obama did.
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Under Obama, U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement deported more than 360,000 people aurally, during six years of his two-term presidency, with a peak of more than 400,000 people in 2012. Trump logged more than 935,000 depredation total over four years, with a peak of over 260,000 removals in 2019.
..... This time,Trump may use an authority typically invoked only during war time. One of the executive order published Monday [01/20/2025] open the door to a wave of immigration enforcement, not seen since World War II, under a potential invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
..... The order sets a 14-day deadline for Trump to invoke the Act's authority.
..... Trump described targeting members of crime gangs such as Venezuela's Tren De aragua or MS-13, born in Los Angeles and exported to El Salvador and Guatemala. but experts worry the order could be applied more broadly.
..... Katherine Ebright, counsel in the Brennen Center for Justice's center for liberty and national security, said the 1798 Alien enemies Act was intended to be sued as a wartime authority to detain or remove designated enemies.
..... This would be the first time an enemy had been declared against a crime gang without a war against the country.