MEMO: Trump’s Day One Immigration Overhaul

As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office and execute his pledge to deport over 20 million immigrants — putting 5.1 million U.S. citizen children at risk of family separation — his administration led by Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, architects of Trump’s zero tolerance policy, is expected to take swift, sweeping actions to overhaul the U.S. immigration system on Day One. Early executive actions will likely reverse the Biden-Harris administration’s progress to rebuild a fair and orderly immigration system, stripping protections from immigrants with temporary legal status, dismantling legal pathways, and drastically expanding immigration enforcement and detention. Alongside a Republican-controlled House and Senate poised to fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda, Congress is expected to support Trump’s effort to target birthright citizenship, restrict public benefits for millions of U.S. citizen children, and further escalate militarized immigration enforcement.

By targeting millions of hardworking and long-settled immigrants, Donald Trump threatens to undermine the local communities where they live and destabilize the economies they contribute to across the country. From deporting U.S.-born children to holding families in detention camps, Trump will do “whatever it takes” to execute his mass deportation agenda. His punitive agenda is only the beginning of the broader threat that he poses to the country, endangering democracy and the core values that define America. It is imperative that elected officials at all levels and civic and community leaders stand united to defend these principles and protect immigrant communities from these regressive policies.

1. Laying the Foundation for Mass Deportation at Scale 

• Issuing Expansive Enforcement Directives. ICE and CBP will be directed to detain and deport immigrants, including those who have been in the U.S. for many years and/or with expiring humanitarian protections. Interior enforcement actions such as workplace raids, will target non-priority immigrants, intensifying fear and destabilizing immigrant communities. According to recent press reports,Trump is posed to rescind the policy restricting ICE arrests at “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, and schools. 
• Issuing a National Emergency Designation: Trump could also declare a national emergency to redirect military assets to detain and remove immigrants. Moreover, the administration would divert money from the Pentagon to pay for border wall construction, and expand border militarization. 
• Surging Detention Capacity and Turbocharging Deportations: Trump has signaled he will ramp up detention capacity, effectively deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration agents through a  “historic expansion” of 287(g) agreements. An estimated 2,000 sheriffs across the country are ready to be “force multipliers” for ICE and its 6,000 agents, significantly broadening the enforcement reach and spreading fear within communities. 
• Militarizing Immigration Enforcement: The administration could use the military and its resources through the 1798 Alien Enemies Act which would allow the president to “deport anyone who is not an American citizen and is from a country with which there is a ‘declared war’ or a threatened or attempted ‘invasion or predatory incursion.’” 

2. Gutting Legal Immigration Pathways and Humanitarian Protections 

• Terminating legal status by ending programs such as the CHNV parole program, “Uniting for Ukraine,” “Operation Allies Welcome,” and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections, stripping legal status and work authorization for more than 1.5 million people.

• About 530,000 individuals paroled under the CHNV parole process will face deportation risks if they haven’t sought asylum or other relief when their parole terms ends in 2025. 

• In 2025, the Trump administration will make decisions on TPS or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections for 15 countries, affecting 850,000 individuals. 

• Slashing Refugee Admissions: Trump plans to temporarily suspend the U.S. refugee admissions program and then slash refugee admissions to a record low cap of 15,000—down from the 100,000 resettled in FY2024.
• Gutting the asylum process: Policies like “Remain in Mexico” (MPP) will likely return, forcing asylum seekers to remain in dangerous conditions in Mexico while awaiting decisions on their asylum cases.
• Enacting Immigration Bans: Expansion of “temporary” 212(f) declaration to ban certain immigrants under the pretext of national security concerns could also return under a second Trump term. 

3. Targeting Existing U.S. Citizens and Residents

• Challenging birthright citizenship and the right to public education, established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plyler v. Doe, threatening the rights of up to 1.8 million American kids with undocumented parents.
• Restricting Public Safety Net: Trump will renew efforts to restrict children in mixed-status families from accessing public supports. In 2019, his restrictive public charge rule had a profound chilling effect on immigrant families’ access to health care, food assistance, and housing support.

The Money To Fuel Mass Deportation:  Mass deportation is incredibly expensive, with some estimates finding that it could cost taxpayers $88 billion annually. To fund a deportation operation of this scale, Trump will turn to Congress to use the reconciliation process. The Trump administration’s top priority in Congress will be to pass a budget bill, with the first reconciliation likely including both tax and immigration issues. The provisions could focus on public support, border and interior enforcement, restrictions to legal immigration, and other issues.  There are limits to policy that can be passed through reconciliation, however, as a budgetary tool it affords Trump wide latitude to move around funding with a simple majority. 

The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.