By Fisayo Okare, DOCUMENTED | Editorial credit: Phil Pasquini / shutterstock.com

Trump’s executive order has led to the immediate suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Another order aims to reinstate Remain in Mexico and terminate Temporary Protected Status.

President Donald Trump has signed 11 executive orders related to immigration, which combined with his inaugural speech, send a clear message about heavy immigration enforcement to come.

Documented has been going through the details of each executive order from the White House, and talked to experts to understand what these may mean for our communities.

Of the eleven executive orders, two are headlined “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” and “Securing Our Borders.”

“Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program”

This order has led to the immediate suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) — a program authorized by congress in 1980 and is managed by the Department of State in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Trump and the team that drafted the executive order say it is important because of the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the U.S. over the past four years, citing new arrivals in New York City, Chicago, Denver, Pennsylvania, Springfield, and Whitewater in Wisconsin.

“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the order notes.

What does this mean?

The refugee program will be suspended starting on January 27 indefinitely, while the Trump administration prepares a report within 90 days about whether it is in the national interest to restart refugee resettlement.

“We can expect to see low numbers [of refugees]. But how long this pause stays in place I think is an open question,” said Julia Gelatt, Associate Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, in response to Documented.

The effects of the executive order have been immediate. Already, flights of vetted refugees are being canceled. Over 10,000 Afghans have had their flights to the U.S. canceled through the refugee program.

In the first Trump administration, there was initially a pause on refugee resettlement and enhanced vetting particularly for 11 countries that were deemed to be high risk. Trump also set unprecedentedly low ceilings on refugee resettlement, Gelatt explained.

Former president George W. Bush, for example, set a cap of 80,000 refugees per year, while actually admitting about 60,000 in 2008.

In comparison, towards the end of the first Trump administration, the Presidential Determination officially setting the refugee ceiling was issued on October 28, 2020, for only 15,000 refugees to be resettled in FY 2021. When President Biden came into office, his administration increased the FY 2021 ceiling to 62,500, and set the FY 2022 ceiling at 125,000.

You can read the full details of the executive order on “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program” here.

“Securing Our Borders”

Invoking the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the law governing U.S. immigration policy, President Donald Trump put in place an executive order called “Securing Our Borders.”

“My administration will marshall all available resources and authorities to stop this unprecedented flood of illegal aliens into the United States,” Trump said in the executive order.

What are the implications?

The order states that the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security will “deploy and construct temporary and permanent physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border of the United States;” as well as “deploy sufficient personnel along the southern border of the United States to ensure complete operational control.”

The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security will also ramp up detention mechanisms and end “catch-and-release,” an unofficial term for the government practice of releasing people apprehended at the border while their cases are waiting to be heard in immigration court.

The order further states that as soon as the Trump administration is feasibly able to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” program (which is officially known as “Migrant Protection Protocols” – MPP 1.0), they would do so.

The U.S. government will need the cooperation of the Mexican government to reintroduce the program. The Trump administration introduced the “Remain in Mexico” program (which is officially known as “Migrant Protection Protocols” – MPP 1.0) in 2019. However, citing human rights violations and logistical issues, the Biden administration ended the program after taking office. A court-ordered reinstatement returned 7,505 migrants to Mexico between December 2021 to August 2022 before the Supreme Court overturned the order. Mexico has since opposed any revival of similar programs.

“The Biden administration has relied heavily on cooperation from other countries, particularly Mexico and Panama, which have been our most reliable partners and some of the other things that the president [Trump] is talking about could really hamper that,” said Doris Meissner, a Senior Fellow and Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, during a webinar Documented attended.

“The issue of tariffs on Mexico, imposing 25 percent, starting very soon, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, threats to retake the Panama Canal will make it much more difficult for those countries to cooperate with the United States going forward.”

The “Securing Our Borders” executive order has already had an impact, starting with the end of CBP One — a mobile application which migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. used to book appointments before arriving at U.S. ports of entry.

The order also aims to terminate Temporary Protected Status — a program which grants legal status to migrants for a limited term as a result of the humanitarian crises in some countries, which have been marked by political instability, economic collapse, widespread violence, and lack of access to basic necessities such as food, medicine and health care.

“The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable law, take all appropriate action to terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States established in my Executive Orders, including the program known as the “Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans,”” the order states.

Two weeks from now, the order continues, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Homeland Security will provide more recommendations to President Trump about more immigration policies to implement.

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