WASHINGTON/PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump said on Monday (Jan 20) he will declare illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency, send troops there and ramp up deportations of criminal offenders.
Trump, outlining the crackdown in his inaugural address, said he would invoke a 1798 wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act to target foreign gang members in the US, a legal authority last used to detain non-citizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent in internment camps during World War Two. Trump also said he would designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.
Shortly after the inauguration, US border authorities said they had shut down outgoing President Joe Biden's CBP One entry programme, which had allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the US legally by scheduling an appointment on an app. Existing appointments were cancelled, leaving migrants stunned and unsure of what to do.
Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House after promising to intensify border security and deport record numbers of migrants. While Trump criticised Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during the Democrat's presidency, migrant arrests fell dramatically after Biden toughened his policies in June and as Mexico stepped up enforcement.
Republicans say large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants crossed illegally during Biden's presidency. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the US illegally or with a temporary status at the start of 2022, according to a US government estimate, a figure that some analysts now place at 13 million to 14 million.
"As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said in his address.
Trump's critics and immigrant advocates say mass deportations could disrupt businesses, split families and cost US taxpayers billions of dollars.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing on Monday that Trump's decision to end the CBP One programme removed the only avenue to asylum at the US-Mexico border. The ACLU asked a federal judge in Washington to allow the termination to be considered in an existing lawsuit over Biden-era asylum restrictions that could affect Trump's own legal authority, the opening salvo by the civil rights group to fight Trump's agenda in court.
California and other Democratic-led states that have policies limiting co-operation with federal immigration enforcement also could clash with Trump.
Americans have grown less welcoming toward immigrants without legal status since Trump's first presidency, but remain wary of harsh measures such as using detention camps, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found.
In several Mexican border cities, migrants saw their appointments on Biden's CBP One app cancelled just after Trump took office. Some 280,000 people had been logging into the app daily to secure an appointment as of Jan 7.
In Matamoros, Mexico, a group of migrants from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas arrived at a legal border crossing at midday but were turned back by border authorities who said all appointments were now void, they told a Reuters witness.
Denia Mendez, a Honduran sitting in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras — a Mexican city across from Eagle Pass, Texas — opened her email inbox 30 minutes after Trump became president. She stared at an email for several minutes, reading it over and over, before her eyes welled up.
"They cancelled my appointment," she said. Several other migrants, who just minutes ago were laughing as they fed potato chips to pigeons, huddled around her phone, their faces suddenly grave.
Mendez's 15-year-old daughter Sofia kept trying to get into the CBP One app.
"They're not going to let you into the app, baby," her mother told her softly.
Trump intends to challenge US citizenship for children born to parents in the US illegally, an incoming Trump official said earlier in the day. So-called "birthright citizenship" stems from an amendment to the US Constitution and any move to restrict it will almost certainly trigger legal challenges.
Trump also plans to suspend the US refugee resettlement programme for at least four months and will order a review of security to see if travellers from certain nations should be subject to a travel ban, the official said.
Trump said in his address that he would reinstate his first-term "remain in Mexico" programme, which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the outcome of the US cases. Biden ended the programme in 2021, saying migrants were stuck waiting in squalid conditions.
"All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," Trump said.
Mexico's presidency, foreign ministry, and economy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump's plans. In a regular press conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called for calm and insisted her government had to see the details of Trump's actions before responding.
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