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TRUMP PROMISES TO END BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND SHUT DOWN THE BORDER
– A LEGAL SCHOLAR EXPLAINS THE CHALLENGES THESE ACTIONS COULD FACE
 
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Amy Lieberman with Jean Lantz Reisz
January 20, 2025
The Conversation
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_ Amy Lieberman, a politics editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke
with scholar Jean Lantz Reisz, co-director of the University of
Southern California’s Immigration Clinic to understand the meaning
of Trump’s new executive orders... _

Vice President JD Vance applauds as Donald Trump gestures during the
inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, Kevin Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images

 

_During his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald
Trump signed a slew of executive orders on immigration
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that would make it harder for refugees, asylum seekers and others to
try to enter the U.S. – and for some immigrants to stay in the
country._

_On Monday night, Trump signed executive orders
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that included declaring a national emergency
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at the U.S.-Mexico border and pausing refugee admissions
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for at least four months. Migrants trying to enter the U.S. at the
border also found that CBP One, an app they used to schedule asylum
application appointments, was shut down
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_Amy Lieberman, a politics editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with
scholar Jean Lantz Reisz
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of the University of Southern California’s Immigration Clinic and a
clinical associate professor of law, to understand the meaning of
Trump’s new executive orders – and the challenges he could face in
implementing them._

WILL TRUMP BE ABLE TO CARRY OUT THESE MANY EXECUTIVE ORDERS?

When it comes to immigration and national security, the president has
a broad range of powers. We are hearing that Trump is trying to end
asylum. Migrants at the U.S. border today had their appointments with
Customs and Border Protection
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There will be litigation because asylum is a big part of U.S. law and
only a Congressional act can end it. Using different kinds of national
security and public health actions, like Title 42
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an emergency health order that allowed the government to turn away
migrants at the border because of COVID-19, has been successful in the
past at making it harder for people to seek asylum – but a
presidential action cannot end asylum.

If Congress wanted to end asylum, it would be a terrible thing in the
world of international human rights, but it could still happen.

Trump announced he will reinstate
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the Remain in Mexico program
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which requires people seeking asylum in the U.S. to remain in Mexico
while they await their court date. It would require Mexico’s
cooperation to do this, especially since this would apply to migrants
who are not even from Mexico. Usually, this kind of announcement would
have to first be published in the Federal Register for comment. This
procedure has not been followed here and could leave this policy open
to legal challenges.

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN TO SHUT DOWN THE BORDER?

We don’t have the details yet, but it looks like shutting down the
border
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means the U.S. government will no longer process any migrants coming
to the border without visas for asylum or other kinds of humanitarian
relief.

Up until now, if a migrant comes to the U.S. border and says they fear
returning to their home country, they are supposed to be given a
so-called “credible fear interview.” That would be suspended.
People have the right to seek asylum under U.S. law
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by shutting the border down, the president is preventing people from
exercising that right.

Now, under Trump’s orders, migrants who are crossing into the
country and seeking asylum or humanitarian parole at a U.S. border
port of entry will be denied the right to stay in the country, even
temporarily. Everyone who crosses the border will be immediately
expelled from the country.

That is an immediate impact that is already being felt at the border.
But for people who already crossed the U.S. border and applied for
asylum, their situations have not changed, according to these
executive orders. This is also unlikely to affect people who have
visas to enter the country or those conducting any commerce across the
border.

[A small group of people are seen in front of a large dark wall with
slits in it. Two white-and-green vans are parked next to the wall.]
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Immigrants prepare to be transported by U.S. Border Patrol agents
after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 20, 2025. Kevin
Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images
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TRUMP ANNOUNCED THAT HE WILL USE THE ALIEN ENEMIES ACT TO DEPORT
IMMIGRANTS WHO ARE IN THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY. ARE THERE LIMITS ON HIS
ABILITY TO DO THAT?

The president has the authority to invoke the Alien Enemies Act
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a law from 1798 that allows a president to detain and deport
noncitizen males
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during times of war. This is aimed at making it easier to deport
people who have been suspected of belonging to a drug cartel.

But the U.S. government then has to prove that it is at war with the
migrant’s country of origin, and that the drug cartels represent
this entire country and government. In the immigration system, a
president can deport someone who is suspected of supporting or
belonging to a drug cartel or terrorist group, but Trump may be using
the Alien Enemies Act to deport a targeted group of persons more
quickly.

The Alien Enemies Act does allow a federal court to review whether or
not a person being targeted by the U.S. government is actually an
alien enemy. This hasn’t actually played out for almost 100 years,
but someone could challenge the government’s designation that they
are a foreign enemy and take the claim to a federal court, or all the
way up to the Supreme Court.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE OTHER BIG CHANGES THAT YOU WILL BE WATCHING?

First, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration will
end birthright citizenship
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which gives U.S. citizenship to U.S.-born children of noncitizens. I
think that would play out by Trump issuing orders to federal agencies
like the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social
Security Administration to not process citizen’s applications for
passports or Social Security numbers if they cannot demonstrate that
the citizen’s parents were lawfully present in the U.S. at the
citizen’s birth.

That would then be challenged with lawsuits because the president
can’t just say there is no more birthright citizenship when it is
part of the
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U.S. Constitution
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I am also expecting mass arrests of immigrants
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living in the U.S. without legally authorized status through workplace
raids targeting them. The president has the authority to arrest
everyone who is in unlawful status. But most immigrants living in the
U.S. without legal authorization have the right to go in front of an
immigration judge [[link removed]] to argue
that they are lawfully in the U.S. There is a long backlog right now
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immigration court. It could also be prohibitively expensive to arrest,
detain and deport the millions
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of people that Trump wants to deport.

Finally, by declaring a national emergency at the southern border,
Trump could use Department of Defense funding for immigration
enforcement and allow the military and the National Guard to help
patrol the border and build a border wall.

The National Guard has assisted in border security administrative work
under Joe Biden’s administration, as well as Barack Obama’s and
Trump’s, by doing things like mending fences and stocking warehouses
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This freed up more Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection
agents to go out and actually arrest immigrants. That is nothing new.

But the way Trump is saying he is going to enlist military to do the
law enforcement would likely be challenged
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U.S. law says you cannot use the military
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in internal law enforcement operations.

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* Immigration; US/Mexico Border; Birthright Citizenship; President
Trump;
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