• D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG
  • D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
Semafor Logo
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG


icon

Semafor Signals

First Trump immigration orders spark unanswered questions, legal fights

Jan 22, 2025, 4:36pm EST
politicsNorth America
US-Mexico border
Daniel Aguilar/Reuters
PostEmailWhatsapp
Title icon

The News

US President Donald Trump has used his first days in office to double down on his promise to make immigration a focus of his presidency. On day one, Trump signed executive orders to mobilize the US military at the southern border, classify drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, expedite deportations, shut down refugee applications, and revoke birthright citizenship.

Much of the fine print remains unclear, but legal challenges are already in motion — although many will take months, if not years, to resolve.

AD

Meanwhile, state and foreign governments are scrambling to respond to the measures, even as some advocates believe their early efforts will fall short.

icon

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Birthright rollback could provide a ‘talking point’ even as likely to fail

Source icon
Sources:  
Bloomberg, Brennan Center for Justice

Trump likely knows the birthright order will fail, Bloomberg columnist Patricia Lopez argued, but it still “gives him a talking point and another way to blame opponents for thwarting him.” Birthright citizenship — whereby children born in the US are automatically citizens — is enshrined in the Constitution, and most legal scholars agree that an executive order alone can’t nullify that right. And while some critics worry that the current US Supreme Court has “bent American jurisprudence into novel shapes to avoid direct conflict with Trump,” even the most conservative justices in the nation’s history, including those that upheld segregation in the late 1800s, “couldn’t find an honest way around the 14th Amendment’s plain language,” the Brennan Center for Justice wrote.

Blue state protections for immigrants could fall short, advocates warn

Source icon
Sources:  
Poliitco, Los Angeles Times

Democratically-controlled California is mulling new legislation that would help connect migrants to legal and community support systems, Politico reported. But the California resolution does not provide funds to hire public defenders that have the training and resources to serve as the “first line of defense against mass deportations,” immigration law advocate Cyn Yamishiro wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “California simply does not have enough public defenders,” Yamishiro argued, with many immigrants often going weeks in detention without access to one.

Guatemala offers Latin America a roadmap for dealing with Trump

Source icon
Source:  
The New York Times

Weeks before Donald Trump returned to office, Guatemala said it would be open to accepting deportees who are not from Guatemala, adding that deported migrants from the US would be welcomed into the Latin American country with health and employment services, The New York Times reported. The proposal reflects the implications of Trump’s “unspoken expectation” that Latin American countries must receive their deported citizens, and stop them from returning illegally to the US. The promised uptick in deportees could be an “enormous” economic opportunity for the region, according to one political scientist. Still, many people could choose to try and return to the US as Latin America struggles to combat organized crime, poverty, and the fallout of climate change.

AD