CUT THROUGH THE NOISE:
Trump’S Alarming ANTI-IMMIGRANT THREATS
The Trump Administration's agenda is clear: strip immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people of their rights and dignity.
For far too long, the U.S. has tolerated the intentional destruction of our pledge to welcome those seeking freedom. Now, the threat is greatest as President Trump vows to do everything in his power to undermine the legal and human rights not only of people and families seeking safety and a better future but also of those who know no other home than the U.S. — of Americans.
President Trump promises to unleash a torrent of anti-immigrant executive orders that will inflict shock and horror.
We’ve all heard about looming mass deportations. They are made possible and exacerbated by a series of severe, egregious, and insidious executive and legislative actions.
Many of these policies set the stage for myriad unconscionable family separation crises unlike anything ever seen before in the U.S. — as well as the possible deportation of American citizen children alongside their parents.
Make no mistake about it — the complete disregard for human life and dignity is at the core of this administration’s actions against immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people and families.
A new Trump Era is here, and it’s our shared responsibility to learn about the executive orders and legislative measures that we can anticipate starting now.
The Trump Administration is revisiting its “greatest hits” to revive and refine his most egregious policies. Here’s what to expect:
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In his inaugural address, President Trump confirmed the return of the dangerous “Remain In Mexico” policy, which forced approximately 70,000 people seeking asylum, including children, to wait indefinitely in Mexico until their asylum hearings — a process that can take months or even years.
This policy inflicted the highest level of suffering on families and children seeking refuge in the U.S. by forcing them to live in makeshift camps — with human rights violations including inadequate access to food, clean water, and medical services. While living in these unofficial refugee camps, an alarming number of people and families were victims of horrifying violent crimes, including rape, kidnapping, and torture.
When people subjected to “Remain in Mexico” finally had their court hearings, they were rushed through with almost no access to attorneys. In the first iteration of this policy, only 1% of completed cases were granted relief in immigration court.
Reinstating “Remain in Mexico” would have devastating consequences for asylum — and we know that deterrence policies, like “Remain in Mexico,” only serve to exacerbate health inequities and put families and people in even more danger.
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In March 2020, the Trump Administration leveraged Title 42, a public health mandate to spread anti-immigrant fear at the start of the pandemic and trigger a border shutdown. The CDC was immediately vocal in its opposition to Title 42, but the administration refused the advice of scientists.
This policy justified the rapid expulsion — or forced removals — of people who entered the U.S. through Mexico or Canada. Many families were expelled from the U.S., without due process, to the countries they fled.
Title 42 illegally gutted the asylum system by violating refugee law and denying people their chance to rightfully seek asylum. Under the policy, people and families seeking their legal and human right to seek asylum were turned away and returned to dangerous, violent, and potentially deadly situations.
The incoming Trump Administration is planning to reinvoke Title 42 and shut down the U.S.-Mexico border. This is compounded by recent news that the administration is willing to go as far as citing mass immigration itself as a “public health threat” in order to close the border — and reinforcing racist tropes that “other” immigrants and stoking unfounded fear of infectious disease.
Disingenuously leveraging an emergency public health rule to restrict immigration shows us that this administration is ready to use whatever backdoor means it can to obstruct the legal and human right to seek asylum.
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You may recall the “Muslim Ban” enacted by President Trump just one week into his first term in office, but it went much further than that. In Executive Order 13769, Executive Order 13780, Presidential Proclamation 9645, Executive Order 13815, Presidential Proclamation 9723, and Presidential Proclamation 9983, he invoked Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952, which grants the President authority to suspend the entry of noncitizens to the U.S.
Throughout his four years in office, President Trump ultimately targeted people from Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Yemen in one or more of his executive orders and presidential proclamations.
Despite public outrage at the racism and xenophobia underpinning the travel bans, the first Trump Administration’s use case was upheld in 2018 by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision, paving the way for their reinstatement and potential expansion to include Palestinian refugees based upon the president’s own remarks. Based upon previous experience, U.S. universities have been urging noncitizen students to return prior to Inauguration Day, or else risk interrupting their post-secondary studies.
However, the impact promises to be deeper if history serves as our guide. The American public writ large stands to suffer from the potential increase in hate-motivated violence and xenophobia. Family separation will extend from the border to U.S. embassies globally. And people in the U.S. lawfully stand to experience negative public health repercussions, including psychological trauma and stress.
Looking ahead, the Trump Administration is planning even more egregious policies that were once unthinkable.
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In his inaugural address, President Trump promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a wartime authority that grants presidents the power to forgo due process to detain and deport any and all natives and citizens of a nation deemed “enemy” of the U.S. Last invoked 80 years ago during World War II, this authority was used as the legal underpinning for Japanese internment camps, one of the darkest chapters in American history.
The Trump Administration intends to use this act to launch “Operation Aurora” to target people for detention and deportation and threaten sanctuary cities that protect communities from ICE cooperation with local law enforcement.
The extent to which the administration plans to weaponize the Alien Enemies Act remains to be seen. In 2023, the U.S. foreign-born population was 47.8 million according to Pew Research Center — or approximately 14.3% of the U.S. population. But one scenario that stands out: it could be wielded against college campus protesters in fulfillment of one of the Republican Party’s Top 20 promises made as part of its “2024 Make America Great!” platform.
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Birthright citizenship is fundamental to our American identity and is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment. For 157 years, it has been established law and was reaffirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which determined that citizenship is automatically granted to individuals based on where they are born, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
In 2025, the U.S. is one of 29 nations, including Canada and Mexico, that follow jus soli (birthplace being the determinant, except for children born to foreign diplomats), differentiating itself from Europe and the shadow populations created of stateless people with no national identity or roots and limited legal rights.
The Trump Administration has threatened to end birthright citizenship by executive order — what we believe would be a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Who is at greatest risk is as of yet unknown. There are an estimated 5.5 million U.S.-born children living in a mixed-status household with at least one undocumented resident. They are amongst the 37.1 million second-generation Americans, or approximately 12% of the U.S. population, whose citizenship would be questioned. In confirmation hearings this week, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi declined to confirm that the Fourteenth Amendment is the law of the land, and indicated that she would “study birthright citizenship” if confirmed.
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Established as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is an immigration status that prevents someone from getting deported for a designated period of time if they’re from a country experiencing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. People protected by TPS are eligible for work authorization but cannot access public benefits. Currently in effect for people who have been in the U.S. since a prescribed date from Afghanistan, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen, TPS is for periods of 6 to 18 months and can be extended at the discretion of the federal government.
As per 2024 data, there are more than 860,000 TPS holders who have, on average, spent 28 years living in the U.S. So don’t be misled by the name — TPS doesn’t mean that individuals only temporarily live in the U.S. Many have called this country home for decades, building lives, starting families, holding jobs, and integrating themselves as valuable members of our communities.
While one can apply for other forms of relief for which they may be eligible, TPS itself is not a pathway to citizenship and extensions are not guaranteed, meaning that families continuously face uncertainty, as well as incur hundreds of dollars in refiling, biometric, and work permit fees — as well as emotional distress.
The future of this program is uncertain. The first Trump Administration attempted to revoke TPS, a move that was blocked by courts in Ramos v. Wolf. In an attempt to protect TPS 10 days before leaving office, President Biden extended protections for people from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, and Sudan.
When our government threatens to transgress our collective values, we must push back.
The Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda will soon unleash one of the worst atrocities in U.S. history — the detention of families, separation of children from their parents, and destruction of communities across the country that have only grown stronger because of our immigrant neighbors.
While the promise of the U.S. feels so far out of reach for millions of our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers, we must remember that the future hasn’t been written yet. It’s in our hands. We can choose how we will approach the coming years and resist the administration’s harmful policies.
We have no excuse not to protect each other. Don’t forget: an infringement on the rights of others threatens our own. But when we come together to defend everyone’s rights, we can also safeguard our own individual liberties.