Trump signs sweeping executive actions on immigration, launches fight to end birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump began his term by taking a series of sweeping immigration executive actions Monday that included declaring a national emergency at the US southern border, immediately ending use of a border app called CBP One that had allowed migrants to legally enter the United States, and kicking off the process to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to tee up a legal fight.

Trump also made a striking personnel move, as senior leadership at the Justice Department’s agency overseeing the nation’s immigration courts were removed from service on Monday, according to a source familiar. The Executive Office for Immigration Review oversees the US immigration court system, where immigration judges decide if immigrants can remain in the US or be deported.

The removals, which targeted career public servants who together have served in the agency for several years, raised questions about whether they were permitted under rules dictated by the Office of Personnel Management. And they illustrated the Trump administration’s push to install officials who are aligned with his policy vision.

Those removed Monday are Sheila McNulty, who was serving as chief immigration judge; Mary Cheng, who occupied the EOIR directorship in an acting capacity; Jill Anderson, general counsel at EOIR; and Lauren Alder Reid, acting assistant director at the Office of Administration in EOIR. Combined, they served in the agency for several years.

The executive actions are the culmination of multiple campaign pledges and the resurfacing of policy ideas that didn’t come to fruition during Trump’s first term. Trump aides have signaled that they will be followed within days by a series of immigration enforcement sweeps targeting criminals, though they haven’t ruled out that others could be apprehended, too.

The shutdown of CBP One on Monday closed a key pathway for people looking to come into the US. Homeland Security Department officials have cited the app as helping drive down migrant crossings by providing an orderly way to apply to the United States. With that now gone, and asylum restrictions in place, the border is effectively shut down to asylum seekers — an extraordinary move.

More than 936,500 people have successfully used the app to schedule appointments to present at ports of entry since January 2023, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Existing appointments have been canceled, the agency said.

Trump signed an action declaring a national emergency at the US southern border and said in his inaugural address that “all illegal entry will immediately be halted.” That declaration triggers the deployment of additional Pentagon resources and armed forces to finish the border wall, among other efforts. It is focused only on southern border security.

“We will have the military at the southern border, but there are other elements of the United States government that will be working throughout the country,” an incoming White House official said.

Trump also designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

“This initiative is a process that will lead to the designation of the cartels like … Tren de Aragua and MS 13 as FTOs and or specifically designated global terrorist,” an incoming White House official said, adding that the move will direct removal of the gang members and, under the Alien Enemies Act, find them as “irregular armed force of Venezuela’s government conducting a predatory incursion and invasion into the United States.”

Trump also kicked off the process to reinstate his signature border policy known as “Remain in Mexico,” requiring migrants to stay in Mexico while they go through their immigration proceedings in the United States. The policy requires Mexico’s buy-in.

Monday’s other executive actions included:

• Ending birthright citizenship, an issue that would need to be addressed via constitutional amendment or via the courts. The action is focused on the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof in the 14th amendment to clarify that on a prospective basis, the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States.”

• Suspending refugee resettlement for at least four months.

• Directing the attorney general to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s executive actions on immigration were written carefully and deliberately to try withstanding expected legal challenges, according to a source familiar with the planning.

It’s a lesson learned from Trump’s first term, when multiple immigration executive orders, some of which were hastily written, were challenged in court. Trump’s allies argue those legal fights hamstrung Trump’s immigration agenda.

As Trump’s team crafted a slate of immigration executive orders, they tried to account for that.

“They’re ready this time,” the source said.

Immigration groups have been privately weighing how they’ll approach lawsuits under the Trump administration, keenly aware that this Trump administration is more prepared and avoiding knee-jerk reactions.

A coalition of civil rights and immigration rights group quickly sued the Trump administration on Monday over his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.

The lawsuit tees up what is expected to be a lengthy and unprecedented legal fight over the issue, with the groups’ attorneys arguing that the action violates both federal law and the US Constitution.

Trump is inheriting a relatively quiet border. While the Biden administration grappled with record crossings over recent years, migrant crossings along the US-Mexico border plummeted in the wake of executive action by President Joe Biden last summer cracking down on asylum.

In December, the last full month of the Biden administration, US Border Patrol recorded 47,300 migrant encounters, according to US Customs and Border Protection. In December 2020, the last full month of Trump’s first term, illegal crossings hovered around 71,000.

But the shutdown of the CBP One app could prompt a rise in illegal border crossings, Homeland Security officials caution. Migrants along the US southern border who learned that their appointments had been canceled may now choose to cross anyway.

“They have nothing to go back to. My bet is a good chunk of them are going to try to cross,” one Homeland Security official said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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