Trump’s three-day immigration blitz severely tightens border, sets stage for rapid deportations

The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out the president’s immigration agenda, effectively closing off the US southern border to asylum seekers, severely limiting who’s eligible to enter the United States and laying the groundwork to swiftly deport migrants already in the country.

The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out the president’s immigration agenda, effectively closing off the US southern border to asylum seekers, severely limiting who’s eligible to enter the United States and laying the groundwork to swiftly deport migrants already in the country. Within hours of taking office, President Donald Trump signed a spate of executive actions that have already had wide-ranging impacts for people both inside and outside the US. By Wednesday, incoming refugee flights were canceled, troops were moving to the border, federal authorities were given permission to arrest people in or near schools and churches, and the pool of undocumented immigrants eligible for quick deportation without a judicial hearing was expanded. Behind the scenes, federal agencies, like the Justice Department, were also standing up their immigration crackdown, firing people in key leadership roles who oversee the nation’s immigration courts and threatening to prosecute state and local officials who resist the administration’s plans. “They were telegraphing this from the very beginning,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter immigration policies. “It’s delivering on promises made during the campaign and … continuing the work they left off four years ago.” Over the course of the week, some of the key policies and efforts that Trump launched in his first term were resurrected, including expanding who’s eligible for a fast-track deportation procedure and largely cutting off the refugee resettlement program. He also moved to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico,” program, requiring migrants to stay in Mexico while they go through their immigration proceedings in the United States. The policy requires Mexico’s buy-in. Late Tuesday, the State Department notified resettlement partners that previously scheduled flights for refugees would be canceled and processing would be suspended, effectively shuttering the program.