Long promised, Donald Trump’s vast anti-immigration offensive is taking shape: the new American president confirmed Monday that he will declare a state of emergency at the border with Mexico, use the American army to ensure it surveillance, and tackling the right to asylum and land rights.
Now in power, the Republican billionaire will sign on the first day of his mandate a slew of decrees which promise to be hotly contested in court, and some of which appear to violate the American constitution. “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.
All illegal entries will be immediately stopped and we will begin sending millions and millions of criminal aliens back to where they came from,” Mr. Trump insisted during his inauguration speech. “I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” added the septuagenarian, who had made immigration a top priority of his campaign.
Among the decrees signed as quickly as possible, Donald Trump also intends to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” doctrine, a flagship measure of his previous mandate abolished under his predecessor Joe Biden. It had forced thousands of asylum seekers from Central America to stay south of the US border while their requests were processed by the courts.
The 47th President of the United States also plans to resume construction of the border wall, according to Anna Kelly, the future deputy spokesperson for the White House. He will also sign decrees attacking the right to asylum and land rights. Land law, which grants anyone born in the United States the right to obtain American citizenship, is provided for in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Mr. Trump’s presidential decrees must “clarify” their scope, according to Ms. Kelly. “The federal government will not automatically grant citizenship via jurisprudence to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” she insisted. These measures risk being challenged in court by various democratic organizations and states. California, for example, recently set aside $25 million to finance likely legal battles against a future Trump government.
“We expect rapid legal challenges,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an expert at the American Immigration Council, reminded AFP. For example, “the 14th Amendment clearly states that the law of the soil is the law of the land,” he stressed.
-According to him, “a president cannot remove it by decree”. “The administration will really try to push the limits” and see if its measures “survive the courts”, judged Cris Ramon, of the NGO UnidosUS, recalling that the role of the army is also circumscribed by law . When it comes to immigration, Joe Biden reversed many measures taken by Donald Trump during his first term.
In particular, he put an end to “Title 42”, a measure taken during the Covid-19 pandemic which prohibited almost all entry into American territory for public health reasons. The Democrat’s presidency was marked by a record number of arrests of migrants at the border, before the implementation of significant restrictions a few months before the presidential election. Their numbers then dropped drastically.
The first effects of Mr. Trump’s return to power are already being concretely felt.
On Monday, the CBP One application, launched by the Biden administration to allow migrants to make an appointment to submit their asylum application before entering the United States, stopped working. “Existing appointments have been canceled,” the service indicates on its website.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump used violent rhetoric towards migrants, who he said were “poisoning the blood” of the United States. The Tribune consistently maintains that the increase in illegal immigration has caused a wave of crime in the United States, which no official statistics show. On Monday, he announced his intention to designate “cartels as foreign terrorist organizations”, promising to “eliminate the presence of all foreign criminal gangs and networks” in the United States.
The new Trump administration will seek the death penalty for non-citizens who commit murder or other major crimes, according to Ms. Kelly. For Mr. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, this vast anti-immigration offensive could have unexpected effects.
“It is entirely possible that we will see an increase in irregular border crossings over the coming months, (…) as other legal routes are closed to them,” he stressed. On Sunday, Pope Francis said the plan promised by Donald Trump would be “a calamity, because it would make poor unfortunates who have nothing pay.”
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