WASHINGTON, D.C. – Immigrant rights groups say they are firing on all cylinders and preparing for a long battle as President Donald Trump’s blueprint for a massive immigration crackdown takes shape.
President Trump has sought to overhaul nearly every aspect of immigration in the United States in a series of orders issued in quick succession during his first week in office.
As part of a broader suspension of the U.S. refugee program, he rescinded guidelines restricting where immigration raids can take place, canceled asylum claims at the southern border and denied asylum to refugees who have already been approved to enter the United States. banned from entering the country.
Although widespread arrests have yet to materialize, immigrant rights advocates said Friday that President Trump has already caused chaos for people seeking refuge in the United States and sent chills through immigrant communities already in the country. He said there was.
“Expensive, cruel and chaotic are the words the Trump administration has used in its efforts to remove immigrants from our country,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America’s Voice, said in a phone call. “It’s a word that characterizes a wave of extreme policies.” With reporters.
“Confusion and fear are what matter.”
“Unprecedented power”
After a campaign defined by dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and asylum seekers, Trump took the oath of office for the second time on Monday, pledging immediate changes to the U.S. immigration system.
The administration has already issued more than a dozen executive orders and policy changes, establishing hard-line policies.
Naina Gupta, policy director for the American Immigration Council, said on a call with reporters Friday that President Trump’s actions reveal an ambition beyond his own stated desire to arrest immigrants with criminal records. said.
“What President Trump’s order makes clear is that all immigrants, the 13 million undocumented people who have been in the United States for years, those with legal protection, asylum seekers, and those already in our country. People with nonimmigrant visas, and people who are trying to move here legally,” she said.
He said many of the administration’s early actions “called forth unprecedented force.” Several people have already been challenged in court, and further legal action is expected.
The policy changes were large-scale.
President Trump plans to increase deportations of illegal immigrants already in the United States by expediting deportations and increasing cooperation with local law enforcement.
His Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also rescinded a decade-old policy banning immigrant arrests in “sensitive” locations such as schools, hospitals and churches. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local officials who obstruct immigration enforcement.
On Friday, US media reported that President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had authorized its officials to expel individuals legally admitted to the country under former President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole program. Citizens of four countries will be affected: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, people seeking safety at the U.S. southern border face new obstacles under the Trump administration.
One of President Trump’s first moves after taking office was to declare a national emergency at the border and deploy the military to the border. The president also suspended asylum processing and canceled CBP One, the Customs and Border Protection app used to schedule asylum appointments.
An estimated 270,000 people on CBP One had their meetings canceled this week, even though they waited weeks, if not months, for appointments in Mexico.
The Trump administration also denied entry to refugees who have undergone lengthy security screening and pre-approval for migration, ahead of a 90-day suspension of the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) starting Monday.
“Total propaganda”
Mr. Trump has undertaken similar efforts during his first term, which began in 2017, but Mr. Gupta of the American Immigration Council said in the first few days of Mr. Trump’s second term, “A more deliberate and thoughtful blueprint has emerged,” he said.
Mr. Gupta added that Mr. Trump and his advisers “clearly understand where there is room” to test the limits of the issue within current U.S. law.
Many community advocates say they are preparing for a “mass deportation” campaign that Trump officials promised in media interviews in the coming days.
The attack in Newark, New Jersey, has already garnered national attention. On Friday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered a local business without a warrant one day earlier.
He accused the country of detaining both illegal aliens and U.S. citizens, calling the incident a “horrible act” in “clear violation” of the U.S. Constitution.
“I was appalled, upset and angry that something like this could happen in this state, in this country,” Baraka said.
The raid appears to be a departure from the Biden administration’s policy, which had suspended immigration enforcement in the workplace.
In its last official update Thursday, ICE said it had arrested 538 people in the first four days of the Trump administration. In 2024, under the Biden administration, the agency averaged about 310 arrests a day.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt also posted on social media, along with a photo of a line of people boarding a military plane: “The deportation flight has begun.”
But critics said deportation flights were a weekly occurrence under the Biden administration, and the only thing that had changed under the Trump administration was the use of military aircraft.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the post “utter propaganda” in a response on social media platform X. Another immigration activist, Thomas Cartwright, called it “the theater of the absurd.”
long game
Advocates continue to monitor how President Trump’s initial orders are implemented, but the battle over their legality has already begun in the courts.
An early victory came Thursday when a federal judge ruled President Trump’s order to abolish birthright citizenship unconstitutional and blocked its enforcement.
Legal challenges have also been filed against President Trump’s moves to expand expedited removals and cancel appointments scheduled through the CBP One app.
On Friday, Justice Action Center Director Karen Tumlin told reporters she expected more challenges to emerge in the coming days.
She explained that President Trump’s military deployments to the southern border, policy changes in “sensitive” areas, and orders to end the so-called “humanitarian parole” program could all face legal challenges.
But Tumlin added that litigation is not a silver bullet to reform the U.S. approach to immigration.
“The most important thing for everyone to remember is this: courts are an important tool to stop harm, but if we are going to change the way we operate, we must listen to the voices of those who are harmed. We really need to listen,” Tumlin said.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president of U.S. law programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), also pointed out the flaws in President Trump’s suspension of the USRAP refugee program.
The order cites national security concerns as part of the rationale for canceling refugee flights, despite often years of vetting of those who participate in the program.
It also “relies in part on the assumption that U.S. communities are not willing or ready to accept refugees,” she said. “I don’t think that matches the facts on the ground.”
She added that IRAP is preparing a lawsuit to challenge the suspension.