President Donald Trump signed a wide array of executive orders related to immigration policy and the southern border on his first day in office, quickly reversing course from the Biden-Harris administration and following through on several promises he made on the campaign trail.
The executive orders on immigration and the border were the first of Trump’s actions he announced during his inaugural address, and were made official at a signing in the Oval Office on Monday.
“Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders,” Trump said in his address. “With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense.”
Among the orders listed by Trump were declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S.-Mexico border, halting all illegal entry, reinstating the “remain in Mexico” policy, ending “catch and release,” designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and sending the military to the border to “repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
Trump also said he would end birthright citizenship, and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and will “direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions,” Trump said. “And that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”
National emergency declaration and military presence at the border
Trump signed a proclamation Monday declaring an emergency at the southern border, declaring that “America’s sovereignty is under attack.”
“Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics that harm Americans, including America,” the proclamation reads.
“This invasion has caused widespread chaos and suffering in our country over the last 4 years,” it states. “It has led to the horrific and inexcusable murders of many innocent American citizens, including women and children, at the hands of illegal aliens.”
The proclamation also cites the actions of foreign criminal gangs that have “begun seizing control of parts of cities,” and cartels that move illicit narcotics over the southern border.
“This assault on the American people and the integrity of America’s sovereign borders represents a grave threat to our Nation,” the proclamation states.
“Because of the gravity and emergency of this present danger and imminent threat, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to take all appropriate action to assist the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border,” it adds.
The proclamation will allow the Trump administration to deploy military units and personnel to the southern border to assist with the operations of Homeland Security, including the construction of physical barriers on the border, the provision of detention spaces for migrants, transportation and other logistical services.
The order directs the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney General, to take “all appropriate action” within the law to “prioritize the impedance and denial of the unauthorized physical entry of aliens across the southern border of the United States.”
A second order issued by Trump clarifies the role that the military will play at the border.
“The Armed Forces of the United States have played a long and well-established role in securing our borders against threats of invasion, against unlawful forays by foreign nationals into the United States, and against other transnational criminal activities that violate our laws and threaten the peace, harmony, and tranquility of the Nation,” the order states.
That second order directs the Secretary of Defense to develop a plan to assign United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) a mission to “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
‘Remain in Mexico’ and ending catch and release
Another order signed by Trump institutes a slate of policies aimed at turning away migrants who attempt to cross the border into the country and avoid deportation by requesting asylum in the U.S.
Among those policies is “remain in Mexico,” which is formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols and was created and implemented during the first Trump administration in 2019, requires some asylum-seeking migrants to wait on the Mexican side of the border until their asylum claim in adjudicated.
The millions of migrants who were apprehended at the southern border during the Biden administration, in many cases, invoke a defensive claim of asylum in order to delay their removal. The constant flow of migrants over the border who claim asylum has created a years-long backlog of Department of Justice Immigration Court cases.
The order also terminated the Biden administration’s special parole program from migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and ended the use of the CBP One phone application, which is used by migrants to schedule appointments at points of entry along the border. Both of those programs together resulted in over 1.8 million migrants entering the U.S. over the past two years under President Biden.
The so-called CHNV Parole program was one of the programs the Biden administration had previously used to fly migrants from foreign countries into American cities, including Bangor.
Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security is directed to impose harsher regulations to require detaining migrants who enter the country illegally rather than releasing them into the country until their court date.
Designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
Making good on yet another promise from the campaign trail, President Trump signed an order Monday designation certain drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States,” the order reads.
“In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society,” it states. “The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
“Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States,” it adds.
The order specifically targets Venezuelan cartel Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the Salvadoran La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as groups that are “extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
The order states that the policy of the U.S. will be to totally eliminate the presence of the cartels in the country, as well as to remove their ability to threaten the territory, safety and security of the U.S.
Included in the order is a reference to potential use of the Alien Enemies Act in order to expedite the removal of criminal alien cartel members.
It’s not immediately clear whether or how the order would apply to transnational criminal organizations in Maine, such as the Chinese cartels known to be operating large black-market cannabis operations in the state.
Ending birthright citizenship
President Trump issued an order on Monday entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” that seeks to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. — a move that has already drawn a legal challenge from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” the order states, declaring that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”
If enforced, the order would result in the federal government not recognizing automatic birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens born in the United Sates.
In a post to X on Monday, the ACLU of Maine announced the national organization’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, calling birthright citizenship “a foundational principle of US democracy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.”
“If you’re born here, you are a citizen – period. No politician can decide who is American and who is not,” the Maine ACLU wrote.
On the heels of the ACLU’s announcement, several Attorneys General from progressive states, including Maine AG Aaron Frey (D), announced they would be filing suit against the Trump Administration.
Reexamining the United States’ participation in the Refugee Admissions Program
President Trump issued an order on Monday that effectively pauses the admission of refugees into the country for a period of at least three months.
“Over the last 4 years, the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP),” the order states.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the order reads.
Under the order, USRAP will be suspended “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
The Department of Homeland Security and State Department will issue a report within 90 days pertaining to whether resuming the admission of refugees aligns with the nation’s interests — until then, refugee admissions and applications will be suspended.
Invest in deportation and deliver US citizens from the evil of taxation slavery and injustice for all .
Exactly! Save the American taxpayer! Working for my own family is hard enough, paying more to pay for illegal aliens is not my responsibility! Get them out! Criminals first, fake asylum seekers next. C’mon man!
Go tommy go
The left will fight it only because they see illegals as their new, permanent voters and low wage slaves.
It’s power and money.
This all can’t happen quick enough.
See this post and think of how well these media lap dog idiots are paid:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/01/21/dana-bash-pretends-to-be-confused-about-tom-homan-deportation-operation/
Deport them all or bury them.
Their choice!
SO PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
Those threatening Trump’s policies better know Trump has a 76 MILLION American Patriots Army ready, willing and able to protect, defend and help him!
FAFO!
And God have mercy on his detractors, because we won’t be kind!
Deport the Aiders and abettors along with the Illegal Scum and just for good measure throw in the H1B Visa holders …..Would love to see Crack Granny Mills take up residence in the DRC….