Promising the greatest deportation effort in the history of the United States, President Trump, in his first days in office, has published a dramatic series of executive orders and other policy changes that will remodel the country's immigration system, and the country Experience of what it means to live in us as an immigrant, particularly one that is undocumented.
There is an estimate of 13 million to 15 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, including more than 2.5 million in California.
That includes the people who crossed the border illegally, the people who exceeded their visas and the people who have requested asylum. It does not include the people who entered the country under several temporary humanitarian programs, or who have obtained a temporary protected status, which gives people the right to live and work in the US. Temporarily due to disasters or conflicts in their countries of origin.
However, many of the people who came to the United States using these legal routes could also be at risk of deportation, due to other actions that the Trump administration has taken.
What exactly has the Trump administration done?
Trump has signed multiple executive orders aimed at immigration that, as the Institute of Migration Policy pointed The United States and Mexico or promote aggressive sweeps to round and deport people who live in the United States illegally. Some of the orders have already been challenged in court, and the defenders said that others could be soon.
Among the most consistent orders:
- The president declared a “national emergency” on the southern border, which will allow him to deploy military troops there.
- He moved to end the citizenship of birth law, which for a long time has been guaranteed by the 14th amendment. The American Union of Civil Liberties and more than 20 states, including California, have sued, arguing that the order is unconstitutional. In a ruling issued in one of those cases on January 23, a federal judge temporarily arrested the order while the legal challenges are developed.
- He suspended the refugee admission program from January 27 for at least 90 days. The last fiscal year, the United States resett more than 100,000 refugees, the highest number in three decades.
Has the new administration done more than affect immigration?
Yes. Among the significant actions:
- Hours after Trump assumed the position, his new administration closed the CBP One mobile application. The Biden administration had expanded the use of CBP one to relieve the process of requesting asylum. Migrants could use the application, once they reached Mexican land, to program appointments with US authorities in legal entrance ports to present their asylum offers and provide biographical information for the exam.
- In a related action, the Administration has given immigration and customs compliance officials the power to quickly deport about 1.4 million immigrants who were granted legal entry to the US. UU. For two years through of two biden era programs: migrants who arrived through the CBP a program and were granted the status of probation while waiting for audiences about their supplications of asylum; and migrants fleeing from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, who were granted temporary probation while looking for asylum.
- In a notice published on January 21, the Administration said it would allow immigration authorities to accelerate deportations of people in the country illegally without a judicial hearing. The aclu has sued To try to stop the plan.
- The National Security Department has long -standing rescinded guidelines Prohibit immigration agents from making arrests in “sensitive” places such as schools, hospitals and churches.
- Benjamine Huffman, the interim secretary of the Department of National Security, has declared a “mass influx” of illegal immigrants on the southern border, which authorizes the department to deput the agents of the state and local law to carry out the immigration application .
- Ice has started driving Advertising immigration raids In many cities, including New York and Chicago. The administration said it was aimed at undocumented people with criminal record. But in an informative session this week, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the administration sees all undocumented immigrants as criminals, because they have violated immigration laws.
So what are the numbers? Have more people been deported since Trump assumed office?
The ICE authorities this week have been publishing daily figures in the X account of the agency citing the number of undocumented immigrants arrested, including 1,179 on January 27 and 969 on January 28. Axios reported this week that ICE made 3,500 arrests during Trump's first week in office. During the last year of Biden in office, the arrest number was approximately 350 per week.
It is too early to evaluate deportation numbers. Deportation, unlike elimination, is a legal process that moves through the courts. On January 27, ICE published in X that: “In a week, officials in charge of enforcing the law have eliminated and returned 7,300 illegal aliens.”
If that rhythm continues, and the ice eliminates 7,300 immigrants every week for a year, that would result in the forced elimination of more than 350,000 people. That figure would exceed the eliminations during the Biden administration. But during the administration of Obama, the ice remakes reached their maximum point in almost 410,000 in fiscal year 2012. Obama's execution policies attacked undocumented immigrants with a criminal record and people who had crossed the border without authorization, according to the Institute of Migration Policywhile it puts low priority in people with roots established in American communities and without criminal record.
What are the current routes for legal immigration?
- People who have a close relative who are American citizen can still request. But if the Trump administration resurrects the prohibitions of travel that prohibit people from certain countries entering the US, that could limit requests to certain nationalities.
- People who are considered valuable skills can request temporary or permanent employment visas, although in many cases there are hopes for years for such visas. Employers can request temporary work visas for foreign citizens for specific jobs. Permanent work visas are limited to 140,000 per year, a figure that includes immigrants plus their eligible and single children, according to the American Immigration Council.
- Immigrants from countries with low immigration rates to the United States are eligible for a green card lottery.
- Visas are still available for parents who adopt a child from another country.
What is happening with the dreamers?
While Trump tried to terminate the deferred action for children's arrivals, or DACA, during his first administration, this time he has not yet touched the program.
The Obama era program gives a renewable work permit and a temporary respite to certain people who came to the United States when they were children. It is estimated that 537,730 people had DACA protection from September, with the vast majority of Mexico, according to the Institute of Migration Policy.
The legality of the program remains mired in federal courts.
What are the sanctuary policies and why does the Trump administration go to them?
There is no clear definition of a sanctuary policy. The term generally applies to policies that limit state and local officials to cooperate with federal authorities in the duties of applying civil immigration.
The 2017 Sanctuary Law of California, the California Securities Law, prohibits state and local law agencies to investigate, interrogate and arrest people simply for immigration application purposes. The law does not prevent federal authorities from performing these execution tasks in California. And it does allow the local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials in limited circumstances, even in cases involving immigrants convicted of certain serious crimes and minor crimes.
Under Los Angeles Sanctuary City LawCity employees and the property of the city cannot be used to “investigate, quote, arrest, retain, transfer or stop anyone” with the purpose of application of immigration. An exception is made for the application of the law investigating serious crimes. UNIFIED sanctuary policy It prohibits personnel from voluntarily cooperating in an immigration compliance action, including information on the immigration status of a student.
An executive order issued on Trump's first day in the position threatens to retain federal funds from the sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to interfere with federal operations of application of the law. Meanwhile, a memorandum of the Department of Justice said that state and local officials could be investigated and processed for not complying with Trump's repression against the application of immigration.
California Atty. General Rob Bonta has called the pronouncement “a tactic of fear” and promised a legal action “if the vague threats of the Trump administration become illegal actions.”
If immigration authorities make mass arrests, do the United States have space to stop all immigrants?
That depends on several factors.
On average, almost 40,000 people have been locked in ice detention centers daily during fiscal year 2025. There is probably the capacity in the system for additional detainees, but how much it is not complete ACLU prisons national.
What is clear is that the administration intends to expand the ice arrest footprint. On Wednesday, Trump ordered his administration to start using the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has 30,000 beds, for the arrest of “high priority” immigrants. The army is also allowing ice to stop undocumented immigrants at the Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, according to Multiple news reports.
ICE operates six detention facilities in California, with capacity for almost 7,200 detainees, and is pressing to expand. Agency officials are looking for space to accommodate 850 to 950 people within two hours of their San Francisco regional field offices, a development reported for the first time by Calmatters.
The agency is also seeking to increase detention capacity in Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, according to federal documents obtained by Calmatters.
ICE facilities, which are largely administered by prison corporations, have been persecuted for accusations of poor medical care and inhuman treatment. The federal courts revoked a 2019 law that would have prohibited private immigration facilities in California.
Times Kate Linthicum, Brittny Mejia, Andrea Castillo and Rachel Uranga personnel contributed to this report.