(NewsNation) — Donald Trump made securing the U.S.-Mexico border a hallmark of his presidential campaign, pledging to stop the flow of immigrants and narcotics into the United States illegally.
Since beginning his second White House stint, Trump has trumpeted a border crackdown that has led to the lowest number of migrant apprehensions in five decades. Federal agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, insist they have more support from the White House, a change, officials said, from what they had under the previous administration.
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Yet, despite controversy over how the administration has handled some deportations, most notably Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, White House border czar Tom Homan told NewsNation that in Trump’s first 100 days in the office, officials have “done things by the book.”
Trump’s Border Executive Orders
Trump declares a national emergency at the southern border
This order helps the Secretary of Defense quickly and seamlessly deploy members of the armed forces to the border and free up more federal resources. In a separate presidential action, Trump also ordered that the United States “take all appropriate action to stop the unprecedented flood of illegal immigrants into the country.
The action also made it a priority for the U.S. to gain “full operational control of the border” and disabled the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to make court appointments to begin the process of obtaining legal residency status.
President Trump signs an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Trump ends ‘catch-and-release’ of migrants
Trump signed an executive order ending the federal program that allowed immigrants who entered the country illegally to remain in the country as long as they were in the process of seeking asylum.
‘Remain in Mexico‘
As part of his executive order related to securing the nation’s borders, Trump reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico until their claims are processed.
Trump resumes border wall construction
Under the order, work on the southern border wall that began under Trump’s watch during his first administration resumed immediately to curb encounters between migrants and border agents and officers.
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Trump designated cartels as global terrorists
Under this order, certain international cartels and other criminal organizations, such as the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan prison gang and MS-13, were designated as foreign terrorist organizations or global terrorists.
Trump changes the definition of birthright citizenship
Trump’s executive order changed the definition of birthright citizenship and declared that no government department or agency will issue citizenship documents to children whose parents do not meet specific guidelines regarding their own citizenship.
Trump signs order to deploy military to the border
The president’s executive order authorized military troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexico border to repel “forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, drug trafficking and human smuggling and trafficking,” along with other criminal activities.
Trump orders enhanced border vetting and screening
Under this order, Trump tightened the vetting and screening of migrants entering the country.
Using Guantanamo Bay to house migrants with criminal histories
The president directed his administration to expand the capacity of Naval Station Guantanamo to house migrants who are targeted for deportation.
Addressing the flow of illicit drugs at the northern border
Trump’s executive order expands the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border to include the U.S.-Canada border to address the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming in from Canada.
Trump signs the Laken Riley Act
The Laken Riley Act became the first bill Trump signed upon taking office, which mandated the detention of “dangerous criminal aliens.” Trump used the new legislation to underscore the immigration approach he planned to take over the next four years.
“The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation to secure the border — but it turned out that all we really needed was a new president,” Trump told Congress in March.
ICE raids and migrant arrests
Soon after Trump took office, raids conducted by ICE, often under the watch of Homan or DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, began taking place in cities across the United States.
Many of the raids centered on sanctuary cities such as Chicago, New York, Boston and Denver – all of which Trump administration officials claimed were harboring migrants with criminal backgrounds.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knock on the door of a residence during a multiagency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago on Jan. 26. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
DHS officials announced on March 13 that over the first 50 days of Trump’s presidency, ICE had made 32,809 migrant arrests. Nearly half of those apprehended had previous criminal convictions, while an additional 9,980 have pending criminal charges against them, DHS officials said.
In February, DHS claimed that arrests made by ICE had increased 627% over the first month of Trump’s presidency compared to those made during the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency.
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However, that figure only took a portion of the arrests made by ICE into consideration and relied on only “at-large” arrests, which immigration officials told NewsNation represent only about 30% of the total number of arrests the agency made.
By the end of January, ICE data showed that the agency was making an average of 1,126 arrests per day. However, by March, the daily average number of book-ins to ICE detention centers fell to 724 per day when the agency made 19,122 migrant arrests.
Trump and deportations
Since signing the executive orders designating gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as criminal terrorist organizations, Trump has enacted the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime act, to fly more than 130 men accused of being part of Tren de Aragua to El Salvador.
ICE detention centers reached full capacity in March, leaving some to wonder if the number of migrant arrests being made falls in line with deportations, which are not as high as some expected under Trump. Homan told NewsNation that the numbers will get there as the focus shifts from migrants with criminal convictions to those who were given due process and have disregarded orders to leave the country.
Homan said that deportation numbers are what they are because the administration is doing things the right way.
However, the deportation flights have not come without controversy. The issue over whether Trump is permitted to invoke the Alien Enemies Act for deportations has reached the U.S. Supreme Court after lower courts found that the Trump administration defied a judge’s order by not forcing flights of detainees to return to the United States once they were in the air bound for El Salvador.
The biggest case, however, has been that of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was granted protected status in 2019 but was deported to El Salvador in March due to an administrative error. Since then, Trump and other administration officials have maintained Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia has denied belonging to the gang, and his attorneys say there is no evidence to prove MS-13 membership. Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return. Yet, Abrego Garcia remains in an El Salvador prison with White House officials committed to keeping him from coming back to the United States.
“This man is a very violent person,” Trump said.
