Washington:
Donald Trump will issue a series of executive orders aimed at reforming the way the United States handles citizenship and immigration, he said Monday minutes after his inauguration.
The 47th president will almost immediately begin a series of presidential decrees aimed at drastically reducing the number of migrants entering the country.
“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” Trump said.
“Any illegal entry will be stopped immediately, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to the places they came from.
“I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” he said.
Trump, who campaigned on a platform of restricting migration and whose policies are popular with people concerned about changing demographics, also plans to end the age-old practice of automatically granting citizenship to anyone who was born in the United States.
“We are going to end asylum,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told reporters, creating “an immediate removal process with no opportunity for asylum. We will then put an end to birthright.”
The idea of birthright is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which grants everyone born on U.S. soil the right to a U.S. passport.
Kelly said Trump's actions would “clarify” the 14th Amendment — the clause governing the birthright to citizenship.
“The federal government will not recognize the automatic birthright rights of children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” she said.
Kelly said the administration would also reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy that was in place under the last Trump administration.
Under that rule, people applying to enter the United States at the Mexican border were not allowed to enter the country until their application was decided.
“We are going to restore Remain in Mexico and build the wall,” she said.
Kelly said Trump would also seek to use the death penalty against noncitizens who commit capital crimes such as murder.
“This is about national security. This is about public safety, and this is about the victims of some of the most violent and abusive criminals we have seen enter our country in our lifetimes, and it ends today,” she said.
Challenges from the court
Many of Trump's executive actions taken during his first term were rescinded under Joe Biden, including one using so-called Title 42, which was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic, eliminating virtually all access to the country was prevented for public health reasons.
The changes under Biden led to an influx of people crossing into the United States, and images of thousands of people packing the border area.
Trump and his allies characterized this as Biden's “open border” policy and frequently spoke of an “invasion.”
The incoming president often used dark images about how illegal migration was “poisoning the blood of the nation,” words that opponents seized on as reminders of Nazi Germany.
Although American presidents have a range of powers, they are not unlimited.
Analysts say any attempt to change birthright will be fraught.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an American Immigration Council Senior Fellow, said the 14th Amendment was “crystal clear” in granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States, with the exception of children of foreign diplomats.
“We have had the birthright for centuries, and a president cannot take it away with an executive order,” he told AFP.
“We expect quick trials.”
Reichlin-Malik said all sides in the immigration debate recognized that the laws needed reform, but that presidential orders were unlikely to lead to lasting change.
“Imposing new travel bans will make the U.S. legal immigration system even more complex, expensive and difficult to navigate than ever,” he said.
“Our immigration system is seriously outdated, and executive actions aimed at restricting it even further will harm the United States.”
(This story has not been edited by Our staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)