Trump II Day One Immigration Breakdown (Updated Hourly)
Donald Trump promised major and immediate changes to immigration policy on day one of his administration. Follow along below to get real-time updates and analysis as the day unfolds.
Although Donald Trump is famous for overpromising and underdelivering, his claim to issue up to 100 executive orders today—many focused on immigration—should not be taken lightly.
Trump will have an opportunity to lay out his vision for the first 100 days of his administration in his acceptance speech; we anticipate that immigration will be a central theme of this vision. His various proxies and appointees, as well as his many followers, are also likely to take advantage of this moment to set an aggressive tone on immigration.
More than tone-setting, today could also be chock-full of immigration policy announcements in the form of executive orders that have been prepared for this occasion. Even more policy announcements could be forecasted in public statements and announcements. Trump’s most ambitious changes to our immigration system will require acts of Congress. Many others will take much longer than 24 hours to go into effect. And some could change the immigration landscape immediately.
Today could be anti-climactic or it could be explosive. Either way, I will provide hour-by-hour updates about immigration policy here so that if anything does unfold, you’ll know about it and you’ll have links to all of the source materials. I’ll also provide objective descriptions and explanations so that if you’re newer to immigration, you’ll have access to the necessary context and meaning. Immigration is complex but stay tuned here and you won’t get lost.
I will update this post every hour on the hour starting at 11:00 am.
Join the discussion in the comments. Feel free to ask questions, introduce yourselves, share your own perspective on the day’s events, and post news you think should be included (or that I might have missed).
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11:00 am Update
Okay, let’s do this. Buckle up everyone and refresh often to get the latest updates! Lots of things are subject to change as we learn more, but let’s get into it.
10 Executive Orders on immigration coming today. First up, Anna Giaritelli from the Washington Examiner (she really has her ear to the ground on these things) reports that an incoming official said Trump would issue 10 executive orders (EOs) today that focus specifically on the border. These include declaring a national emergency at the border, ending refugee resettlement, designating cartels as terrorist organizations, and restarting the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy (I wrote about this on Friday) among others [I’ll get into this below as time permits].
Gulf of Mexico to become Gulf of America. The New York Post says that Trump will follow through with renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Names of natural features are maintained by the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) under the Department of Interior, which maintains a publicly-accessible database. You can see the official register and map below (direct link). If he attempts to change the name by decree, it could face legal challenges because there appears to be an established process in place to submit name changes. Also, two things: (1) this is petty af and (2) America is the entire two continents, it’s not like he’s calling it the “Gulf of USA” (although I shouldn’t give him any ideas).
Beyond immigration, reports say that Trump will immediately expand oil and gas production.
Programming note: instead of being held outside the Capitol, the inauguration is being held inside of the Capitol Rotunda due to weather. This has caused frustration for many Trump supporters who paid big money to come to DC and get a seat as close to Trump as they could afford only now to be forced to watch the swearing in on TV like everyone else. It’s also just incredible to think that the breach of the Capitol was four years ago; rioters reached the rotunda to try to stop the certification of the election and now Trump is back in this same rotunda to become president again.
11:30 am Update
While the ceremony continues, let me break away to make a few points about what we are looking for today.
First, we want to see if there are any shifts or innovations in Trump’s immigration discourse that could help us understand if there is anything new to say. Most of what he has said on the campaign trail is fairly predictable and redundant: conflating immigrants with crime, calling for mass deportation, ending birthright citizenship, and promising to reinstate aggressive border and interior enforcement policies. Will Trump play the greatest hits today, will he turn up the heat, or will he practice a bit of decorum? For instance, in the past, Trump has occasionally broken with his more extreme language to, say, support a possible path forward for DACA recipients; we’ll see if he revisits that today.
Second, we want to see if there are any actual policy announcements and what the substance of those policy announcements might be. It’s all bluster until it’s on paper, and if we can get copies of those orders today, we can have a real conversation. Keep in mind that despite the last several weeks of preparation, Trump admin staff are still just getting settled into their offices and getting access to platforms, so there are lots of mundane things that can cause delays in announcements.
12:00 pm Update
Here we go. Between now and the next update, Donald Trump will become the next President of the United States.
Amy Klobuchar gives an opening speech. She praises the Capitol police and security for their work in facilitating the “peaceful transfer of power”, describes them as exhibiting “grace under pressure.” It gets barely any applause from the audience. She mentions that it’s MLK, Jr. Day and emphasizes the principle of “equal justice under law.” Again, little applause. Her speech will likely draw praise as casting a little eloquent shade on Trump. I’ll post it here if I can find it.
Franklin Graham gives the eulogy... wait... I mean invocation. He “praises God and gives Him glory” for Trump’s election, says “You and You alone saved his life and raised him up in power by Your mighty hand.” Lots of Old Testament warrior and battle rhetoric. Trump is sitting there with his eyes open. I would have gotten in so much trouble as a kid if I got caught with my eyes open during a prayer.
Oaths of Office administered. Vance goes first, administered by Justice Brett Kavanaugh (done at 12:00 PM). Trump goes second, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts (done at 12:02 PM). Welp. That’s that.
The presidential oath he will take is required by the US Constitution to be as follows: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Evidence that Trump will be signing EOs today. A photo has been circulating online in the past hour that shows a desk and chair set up at the Capitol One arena where Trump’s supporters wait for his arrival after his swearing in. The man loves an audience.
Sidenote: a powerful resource for tracking Trump’s immigration policies. During Trump I, Lucas Guttentag at Stanford created an online tool for tracking Trump’s immigration policies. It was a crucial resource for researchers and teachers. Lucas and his team have updated the tracker in preparation for Trump II and appear ready to go. I would encourage you to visit this tool and bookmark it for future reference.
1:00 pm Update
Trump gave his inaugural speech. It lasted about 30 minutes and opened with his spiritual ordination as president followed by a heavy emphasis on immigration, as expected. Ana’s article above was 100% correct. Trump hit all the high notes that she said he would, including issuing an executive order that declared a state of emergency at the border, sending troops, reinstating MPP, designating cartels as terrorists, and using the Alien Enemies Act to facilitate widespread immigration arrests, detention, and deportation. Interestingly, he did not use the phrase “mass deportation” in his speech.
Trump used what I thought was a fairly powerful rhetorical device throughout his speech, and especially in the part about immigration, which contrasted the aid that the US gives to other countries compared to the US’s inability to protect and care for its own citizens. I’m not saying it’s accurate, but I do think it resonates with a lot of people and it was one of the stronger aspects of his speech.
He also made a few remarks that were probably more confusing such as reclaiming the Panama Canal from China, lamenting the effects of the LA fires on rich people in the room, creating an “External Revenue Service” (IRS -> ERS, get it?), and he still mentioned the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) even though some reporting says this collaboration between Musk and Ramaswamy is dead on arrive.
Less related to immigration, Trump says he was sign EOs that recognize two and only two genders, reinstate servicemembers who refused to take the COVID vaccine, and “drill, baby, drill” (the phrase popularized by Sarah Palin during the 2008 election).
Here’s a rough transcript of Trump’s speech if you want a first-run copy. [More to come in this hour as we get reactions from people in the immigration world.]
Update at 5:16 PM. The White House now made a transcript of Trump’s inaugural address available online.
2:00 pm Update
It’s happening, folks.
In his inauguration speech, President Trump said about immigration: “It will change starting today and it will change very quickly.” He wasn’t wrong. CBP One, the smartphone application that allowed asylum seekers to register for inspection at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border, has been suspended and all existing appointments have been cancelled. This is as of a few minutes ago on CBP’s website.
These changes are being rolled out immediately while Trump goes through the order of the day. Until a minute ago, Trump was giving one of his meandering impromptu speeches to an audience of allies including Texas Governor Greg Abbott in what I think was the great room of the Capitol. Not sure how long until he makes it to the Capital One Arena. (I don’t know the order of events of the day, but there must be a public copy somewhere. I’ll see if I can find it.)
Update 2:09 PM. I’ve been watching the days events on the Wall Street Journal’s live feed on YouTube. Politico has an order of events that includes the President signing nominations and executive orders in the President’s Room near the Senate Chamber. At 2:30 pm attending the inaugural parade which is now scheduled to take place inside the Capital One Arena, then he will return to the White House for another signing ceremony before going to the three inaugural balls. This schedule does not say that Trump will sign anything at the Capital One Arena, but based on the photo above, it seems almost certain that he will. Plus, he’ll want the crowd.
Update 2:15 PM. The White House website has been changed over to a Trump-branded website.
So far, none of the major immigration agencies have updated their official newsfeeds or social media accounts with any new announcements. … Trump is sitting down now to sign stuff. Hang on…
Update 2:20 PM. False alarm. Trump signed some official documents related to appointments and the formal assumption of control of the government. Nothing immigration-related. Sorry I don’t understand more about the legality and technicality of this part of presidential transfer of power, it’s not in my wheelhouse. It’s funny to hear Trump and everyone around him saying, basically, “hurry up and sign this, let’s go have lunch.” Relatable. Don’t forget to eat, friends.
3:00 pm Update
The President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino has already issued a statement that rejects entirely Trump’s claim that the US will retake the Panama Canal from Panama.
“On behalf of the Republic of Panama and its people, I must completely reject the statements made by President Donald Trump regarding Panama and its Canal in his inaugural address.”
Trump made a reference earlier today to alleged treaty violations by Panama that gave the US the right to operate the Panama Canal again, specifically to limit China’s access to it. The Panama Canal is a major geo-economic choke point and a political kerfuffle over this throughway could disrupt the flow of goods, much like the blockage of the Suez Canal a few years ago disrupted worldwide logistical networks.
I stand corrected above: ICE’s official X account did tweet at 12:05 pm that the agency “welcomes President Trump and the new administration today.” They are the only immigration agency to do so.
Reports have already emerged from the US-Mexico border that migrants with CBP One appointments are just learning that their appointments have been cancelled and they are stuck on the Mexico side. See Arelis R. Hernández from the Washington Post with a video on X.
The official White House website now includes a list of immigration priorities for the Trump administration. This is the only official information available so far from the new administration related to immigration policies.
Returning to the termination of CBP One above, it was Bill Melugin (journalist for Fox news) who point out that the announcement says “undocumented aliens” rather than the term “illegal immigrant”. Biden changed the usage from “illegal” to “undocumented” back in 2021 and Trump’s proxies have promised to return to using “illegal” to describe immigrants in the country without authorization. Apparently that hasn’t take effect yet. Camilo Montoya-Galvez, a great immigration reporter for CBS News, says that about a quarter million immigrants were in CBP One’s backlog of appointments and waiting lists.
For what it's worth, I also thought using CBP One was a dangerous if well-intentioned idea and I wrote about it:
Kocher, A. (2023). Glitches in the Digitization of Asylum: How CBP One Turns Migrants’ Smartphones into Mobile Borders. Societies, 13(6), 149. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13060149
The White House website is getting updated in real time with the latest post announcing that the US flag will be flown at full-staff for all inauguration days. I remember Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing a similar order recently, but I don’t know the context for this. Is this some MAGA-verse obsession or is it a real thing? … Oh, I see. The flags are currently at half-staff in honor of Jimmy Carter and they want to make sure the flags are raised for inauguration day and can be lowered again tomorrow. Meh, okay.
Another resource to bookmark: The American Immigration Lawyers Association is also keeping tabs on Trump II executive orders related to immigration on their website.
4:00 pm Update
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Let’s start off with a minor point that some people are talking about. Trump did not take the oath of office with his hand on the Bible that Melania held next to him. This is a minor point and not something I would normally comment on, but it’s the kind of small thing that would turn into a conspiracy theory of a Democratic president did the same thing.
Immigrant rights organizations are already releasing statements in response to the new Trump administration. Here are three that I found so far, please add more in the comments.
America’s Voice. “Vanessa Cárdenas Reacts to Trump Immigration Ugliness.”
National Immigration Project. “National Immigration Project Reaffirms Commitment to Defend Immigrant Communities.”
National Partnership for New Americans. “America is Our Home–We Stand United.”
World Relief. “World Relief Responds to Border and Immigration Enforcement Actions Previewed in President Trump’s Inaugural Address.” (Thanks, Robyn Brown.)
The White House website continues to get updated more or less in real time as Trump signs documents. So far the majority are procedural, but I’ll let you know when the immigration policies start to drop.
Well, this is concerning. I saw a video of Elon Musk where he gives what many are describing as a “Nazi salute” to the crowd, not once but twice. That’s... not good. (Also, hey CNN: is it really appropriate to refer to Elon Musk as being in charge of a department that doesn’t exist yet?)
Trump and his parade have not yet arrived at the Capital One Arena, but reports indicate that people have been standing in the below-freezing cold since early this morning to get in.
As I mentioned above, Trump’s proxies are already making the rounds on national news networks. Montana Representative Ryan Zinke told CNN that immigrant families are “part of the problem” and that they will empower sheriffs to round immigrants up, saying that “Montanans have a long history of rounding things up.” He goes on to say that sheriffs know “who’s naughty and who’s nice” and says that they “aren’t there to round up the dishwashers”. So, the Santa Claus Principle of Immigration Enforcement is going into effect in Montana. Good to know. (Thanks to Aaron Rupar for catching this one.)
The Pentagon might be ready to deploy troops at the southern border. Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe said this afternoon that: “Defense officials familiar with the issue [of military action at the border] tell me that preliminary planning has thousands of active-duty troops potentially deploying to the southern border. But it's all very much waiting for specificity from the incoming Trump administration that is yet to come.”
Bookmark for related reading: Check out this article in The Conversation out today titled “Trump’s idea to use military to deport over 10 million migrants faces legal, constitutional and practical hurdles.” It was written by Cassandra Burke Robertson at Western Reserve University and Irina D. Manta at Hofstra University. They say:
“No single law explicitly prevents Trump from using U.S. military assets for deportations. Different legal rules govern military forces, state defense forces and civilian law enforcement. That means legality depends on not just whether the military is used but also how.”
We have our acting agency heads. Before confirmed agency heads are in place, it’s normal to pick acting heads. One important exception here is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That agency hasn’t had a confirmed director since January 20, 2017, exactly eight years ago. It’s just wild to me that an agency can function without a real director as required by law. Here are the heads of the immigration agencies now posted on the White House website:
Caleb Vitello: Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Benjamine Huffman : Secretary of Homeland Security
James McHenry: Attorney General
I don’t know the first two, but James McHenry was the Director of the EOIR (the agency that oversees the immigration court system) during the first Trump administration. When I worked at TRAC, we informed him of major quality issues concerning the agency’s docketing database which he ignored for months then dismissed in an angry letter.
[Still no Trump at Capital One Arena at 3:55 PM]
Just in at 4:08 PM: The Trump White House announced additional nominees, including the following relevant ones for us today:
Rodney Scott, of Oklahoma, to be Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, vice Chris Magnus.
Kashyap Patel, of Nevada, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a term of ten years, vice Christopher A. Wray, resigned.
5:00 pm Update
The festivities at Capital One Arena are underway. Kid Rock performed earlier and now the mood has shifted to a more decorous tone with the Navy band playing some music. I have shifted to watching the events on PBS News. No updates on whitehouse.gov.
First court filings based on CBP One termination. The ACLU already filed new concerns in court related to an ongoing CBP One lawsuit now against the Trump administration for terminating CBP One and all existing appointments made through the app, as noted above. The filing was made at 4:58 pm. Thanks to my good colleague Kathleen Bush-Joseph for pointing this out online. Here are the court documents. The filing states: “Today’s action not only ends appointments going forward, but cancels all existing appointments without any notice…” and urges the court to act quickly because “migrants no longer have any right to seek asylum, whether at a port or between ports.” The plaintiffs want a status conference as early as today.
There’s so my dissonance sitting here listening to the festive Navy band play in preparation for Trump while reading this new immigration lawsuit filing already; just wild how quickly this moves. Welcome to Trump II, folks!
5:28 PM: Trump walks on stage.
6:00 pm Update
Major update: Reuters reports that Trump’s suspension of the refugee resettlement program is already impacting refugees who have been cleared to travel to the United States. This is reminiscent of the “Muslim ban” of the first Trump admin, except that it is based not on specific nationalities but simply inclusion in the refugee resettlement program.
“Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump's order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.”
These individuals have already been vetted and have been expecting to come to the US for likely quite some time. They also represent a very small fraction of refugees from around the world ever resettled, and an even smaller number ever resettled in the United States. Absolutely terrible news.
Now for what’s going on along the border right now. Migrants who sought to comply with US border policy by going to ports of entry are now being told that: “Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid.” This leaves thousands of migrants stranded in northern Mexico with no solution even though they followed the rules.
I had to switch over to the AP’s live stream on YouTube now. I am not even going to try to summarize Trump’s meandering speech in real time. I forgot how deranged and bizarre his speeches are, like a Dada painting and a William Carlos Williams poem had a baby. As soon as he does something on paper, I’ll let you know.
7:00 pm Update
Here it is, folks. Trump just dropped a bunch of executive actions, some related to immigration but most related to a range of government management topics that are rather wide ranging. I will focus solely on the immigration implications, but let’s start with an overview of the announcements published at 7:00 pm on the dot. They are available online here.
Side note: the social media banner for the White House press page still refers to a stock image of Joe Biden. Kinda funny.
Here are the executive orders from the Biden administration that Trump has rescinded (we’ll come back to each of these later and discuss what they mean).
Executive Order 13993 of January 20, 2021 (Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities).
Executive Order 14010 of February 2, 2021 (Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework To Address the Causes of Migration, To Manage Migration Throughout North and Central America, and To Provide Safe and Orderly Processing of Asylum Seekers at the United States Border).
Executive Order 14011 of February 2, 2021 (Establishment of Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families).
Executive Order 14012 of February 2, 2021 (Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans).
Executive Order 14013 of February 4, 2021 (Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs To Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration).
8:00 pm Update
Trump is signing the official executive orders right now. I’m starting to get calls and texts from reporters queueing up comments once we see the paperwork. This is what we waited for. This is where the rubber meets the road. Stay tuned, it’s going to be a long night! Stick around here, I’ll work through as much as I can between here and midnight (while peeking at my alma mater Ohio State going up against Notre Dame tonight).
The EOs are finally streaming out and are updating on the White House website about as quickly as I can refresh my browser. Here they are in a constantly expanding list. Summary and analysis will follow below and in the days to come.
Clarifying the Military's Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States.
Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States.
To access structured and editable versions of the files, or to download them as PDFs, visit my public Google Drive link here.
9:00 pm-10:00pm Update
I’m still updating the list of EOs above…
I believe the list of EOs has stabilized at this point. I have read all of them a few times. Here are some initial thoughts, but please understand that there is still much to learn and to analyze in the coming days. Let me make three points and we’ll call it a day.
Before I wrap completely, let me just say that today has been a long day and this week promises to be a long week. If you want to keep me inspired to listen to Trump’s immigration speeches and reading his EOs so you don’t have to, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Totally up to you, but it means the world to me to know that people believe in this. Okay, let’s look at some takeaways.
First, I can’t shake the impression that Trump's EOs are a laughable stream-of-consciousness mess of wildly untrue assertions rooted in questionable legal basis and supported by the faintest glimmers of association to well-established legal and historical precedent. It’s the federal policy equivalent of the Fyre Festival. It really makes me wonder if the Trump Team learned nothing in the past 4 years. Yes, I know that they retain the tone of Trump’s absurdist political rhetoric. And I’m aware that they could still do tremendous damage. But the EOs are a bit of a mess. Maybe once I work through my biases and talk to more people about the legal basis for them, I’ll change my mind.
Second, whatever power these EOs possess will come from their interdependence and mutually reinforcing chaos, probably not the stand-alone quality of each individual order. The various border enforcement policies are strung together in a lattice of nonsense, but it might be that the combination of public opinion and stacked federal courts will enable some common thread of restrictionism to survive the next four years. To survive, each and every single one of them will have to slug it out in court. Then again, the law has it’s own brutality to it, since law is simply that which survives as law, not that which most faithfully reflects the Good and the True.
Third, if I may say so: I totally called it. Back in November, I wrote that the three characteristics of the second Trump administration would be: volatility, hypocrisy, and cruelty. That framework absolutely applies to analyzing these EOs. For example, Trump claimed that he would return the country to a nation of laws, but completely unravelled the largest federal investigation and prosecution in history of the Capitol Breach Cases. I know why he did it and I suppose it’s in his self-interest to do so. But if you’re wondering how to make sense of these, you may want to go back to read that essay.
That’s all folks…
I’m calling it quits for today but I’ll be back tomorrow. If you’re looking for something more contemplative, you might like my post yesterday about finding routines and simplicity in the midst of turbulent times. And if you’re looking for a more creative and artistic take on our immigration system, I still think Greg Constantine’s work is worth exploring. Both of those are below.
Lastly, let me say a huge “thank you” to everyone who helped us get to 100 paid subscribers today. Your support will keep this going for the next four years. Good night, folks.
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Hey, thank you for doing this. I follow all your work closely across multiple platforms. It's a really honorable thing you're doing, not just with this but all your communications on immigration, at a time when it is so important to get information out there. I commend you sir.
"Eulogy," LOL. Nice slip.