Hot off the press. Today, President Trump issued two (2) executive orders relating to immigration, one on border security (e.g., calling for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, etc.) and one on interior enforcement (e.g., including various provisions relating to enforcement of United States immigration laws, including withholding federal grant money from sanctuary cities).
Like President Obama before him (who he all so often criticized for using executive actions to enforce our immigration law), President Trump is using executive actions to enact these new immigration policies. (Thus far, there have been no changes announced as to President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program.)
Here’s a high-level overview of what we know.
1. Southern Border Wall. The President announced that the United States will construct a wall along our U.S. – Mexico border, based apparently on authority under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 signed into law by President George W. Bush (which called for 700 miles of “reinforced fencing” along the U.S. – Mexico border, along with enhanced surveillance systems). At this point, there are just rumors as to how this will be paid for.
2. Detention for Illegal Entry. The President is seeking new policy guidance for all Department of Homeland Security personnel regarding the appropriate and consistent use of lawful detention authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act, including the termination of the practice commonly known as “catch and release” (whereby aliens are routinely released in the United States shortly after their apprehension for violations of immigration law).
3. Curbing Funding to Sanctuary Cities. The President’s executive orders also seek to end Sanctuary Cities by stripping grant funding for those cities.
4. Temporarily Halting Refugee Admissions. The President is seeking a 120-day pause in refugee admissions to the United States, with the exception of those fleeing religious persecution if their religion is a minority in their country of nationality.
5. Banning Foreign Nationals from Certain Muslim-Majority Countries. The President is banning entry into the United States for at least thirty (30) days all immigrant and nonimmigrant nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. He also may require that all applicants from those countries (and perhaps others) demonstrate that he or she is not a security or public-safety threat to the United States.
6. Uniform Screening for Immigration Benefits. The President announced that there will be added requirements to screenings and procedures for all immigration benefits to identify fraud and to apparently detect an applicants’ intent to do harm. (Perhaps this is the “extreme vetting” we heard so much of on the campaign trail.) The President is also suspending the Visa Interview Waiver Program, essentially requiring all visa applicants to attend a visa interview, unless they are otherwise exempt from doing so under the law.
This is obviously a fluid situation, so I will endeavor to update this as appropriate.