Immigration Policy Tracking Project

Outline: Effectuating Mass Deportations (as of 2.17.25)

Four key EO’s to effectuate removals and impede legal representation.

EO 14157; 14158; 14159; 14165. Not counting birthright citizenship (EO 14160) and other acts decimating the agency; terminating career staff; and displacing or firing immigration judges.

Major buckets:

Expanded removal priorities and authorities (expanding ER, directing agencies to prioritize removal, rescinding “sensitive” locations guidance, eliminating legal pathways;
- EO 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion
- EO 14148: Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions
- EO 14157: Designating Cartels and Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists
- EO 14165: Securing Our Borders
Increased enforcement capacity (enlisting state and local partners and other federal officials, increasing detention capacity, expanding enforcement tactics); and
- EO 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion
- EO 14165: Securing Our Borders
Impeding removal defense (impeding immigration court rights and hindering NGOs that support noncitizens facing removal)
- EO 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion
Attacks on “sanctuary jurisdictions”
- EO 14159: Protecting the American People Against Invasion

Expanded removal priorities and authorities
1. Expedited Removal
  1. EO 14159 § 9 directs DHS to maximize use of expedited removal authorities
    1. DHS expands expedited removal to maximum extent authorized by statute
    2. DHS memo provides guidance for use of expedited removal, including for parolees
2. Prioritizing broad enforcement and removal
  1. EO 14159 § 4 directs DHS to enable ICE, CBP, and USCIS to set civil immigration enforcement priorities and to ensure that ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division prioritizes enforcement. [De facto rescission of Mayorkas enforcement priorities.]
    1. EOIR rescinds memo providing guidance to judges and the BIA on DHS enforcement priorities and prosecutorial discretion
  2. EO 14148 rescinds the 2021 Biden EO 13993, Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities (which rescinded the 2017 Trump EO 13768, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States)
  3. EO 14159 § 5 directs DOJ, DOS, and DHS to prioritize criminal prosecutions related to unauthorized entry or continued unauthorized presence
    1. Acting Deputy AG Bove Memo on Interim Policy Changes Regarding Charging, Sentencing, And Immigration Enforcement rescinds four previous policies regarding charging and sentencing and reinstates 2017 policy directing US Attorneys to pursue the most serious, readily provable immigration-related criminal violations to support DOJ’s removal initiatives [Note: this memo also appears in the border section below]
    2. AG Bondi Memo on General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and Sentencing directs US Attorneys to pursue the most serious, readily provable immigration-related criminal violations to support DHS’s removal initiatives
  4. EO 14157 discusses threats posed by Tren de Aragua and MS-13 and instructs the AG, DHS, and DOS to prepare for the possibility of President Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
    1. AG Bondi Memo on Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations directs DOJ to prioritize removing low-level investigative targets rather than criminally prosecuting them
3. Rescinding or restricting legal pathways to remain in the country
  1. EO 14159 § 16 directs DOS, DHS, and DOJ to rescind policies from prior administrations that led to the presence of noncitizens in the U.S. (including curtailing scope of parole and TPS) [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
    1. DHS Terminates 2023 TPS for Venezuela
  2. EO 14165 § 7(b) directs termination of “categorical parole programs” [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
    1. DHS issues directive to return humanitarian parole to a case-by-case basis and phase out parole programs that are not in accordance with the law
    2. Suspending or terminating parole programs
      1. Reported: USCIS has stopped all “final decisions” on the following parole programs: Uniting for Ukraine; Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) Parole Processes; Family Reunification Parole Programs; and Central American Minors (CAM) Parole, thereby effectively suspending or ending new grants under the programs [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
      2. USCIS paused acceptance of Form I-134A, used for the CHNV, Uniting for Ukraine, and other parole programs, thereby effectively suspending or ending new applications to the programs [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
    3. Revoking existing grants of CHNV parole and considering removal
      1. DHS memo on Guidance Regarding How to Exercise Enforcement Discretion directs ICE, CBP, and USCIS to consider placing noncitizens who have been granted parole under a program that has been paused, modified, or terminated into removal proceedings
      2. Reported: DHS plans to terminate status of existing CHNV parole recipients and place certain beneficiaries who haven’t applied for other forms of immigration relief in removal proceedings
  3. Reported: ICE adopts new policies making it harder for Congress to stay removals through private immigration bills
Increased enforcement capacity
1. EO 14159 § 21 directs DHS to increase CBP and ICE agents and officers
2. In Proclamation 10888, President Trump declared the “current situation at the southern border” an “invasion” under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution and invoked his 212(f) authority in response to this “invasion” to “suspend the entry” of all noncitizens seeking asylum at the border.
3. Deputizing other law enforcement agents to conduct immigration enforcement
  1. State and local officials
    1. DHS makes finding of “mass influx of aliens” under 8 USC § 1103(a)(10) and 8 CFR § 65.83(d)(1) at southern border, citing Proclamation 10888 and requesting state and local assistance nationwide. [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
    2. EO 14159 § 11 directs DHS to maximally authorize state and local law enforcement to be immigration officers (through 287(g) agreements) (see also EO 14165 § 2(f) directing federal agencies to “cooperate fully with State and local law enforcement officials in enacting Federal-State partnerships to enforce Federal immigration priorities”) [Note: these also appear in the border section below]
      1. Reported: New York enters 28 7(g) agreement; Nassau County detectives to be trained to support ICE (see EO 14159 §11 subsequent actions)
      2. Reported: Florida enters 287(g) agreement between Florida Highway Patrol and ICE (see EO 14159 §11 subsequent actions)
  2. Federal officials
    1. DHS authorizes DOJ personnel to enforce immigration law as immigration officers
    2. Reported: DHS asks Treasury to deputize IRS criminal investigators to assist in immigration enforcement
4. Increasing detention capacity
  1. POTUS Memo “Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity” directs DoD and DHS to prepare Guantanamo for detention of migrants
    1. See subsequent actions, most importantly that NYT reports that at least 30 people have been transported by military plane to Guantanamo Bay
  2. EO 14159 § 10 Directs DHS to utilize all legally available resources to increase detention capacity
    1. Reported: DOJ’s BOP is allowing ICE to use federal prisons for immigration detention
    2. Reported: ICE working to lower detention standards to increase the use of state jails
5. Expanding enforcement tactics and locations
  1. EO 14165 § 5 directs DHS to end “catch and release” and detain noncitizens until removal [Note: this also appears in the border section below]
  2. EO 14159 § 12 directs DHS, DOS, and DOJ to encourage noncitizens to voluntarily depart
  3. EO 14159 § 7 directs DHS, DOS, and the AG to publicize the legal obligations of registration of noncitizens as a civil and criminal enforcement priority
  4. Reported: administration officials direct ICE to increase arrests to meet daily quotas
  5. Reported: ICE has resumed workplace raids
  6. Reported: immigration officers may check immigration status of students traveling on schoolbuses through CBP checkpoints
Impeding removal defense
1. Removing or hindering safeguards in immigration court
  1. EOIR rescinds Friends of the Court program
  2. EOIR rescinds guidance on language access in immigration court
  3. EOIR reinstates policy directing IJs to adjudicate asylum claims within 180 days
  4. EOIR reinstates restrictive rules on asylum processing and clock
  5. EOIR reinstates guidance to restrict continuances
  6. EOIR reinstates memo on child advocates, which says HHS does not have authority to appoint Child Advocates for all unaccompanied minors and limiting Child Advocates roles in removal proceedings
  7. EOIR reinstates Trump 1.0 memo on fees (reinstating fee increases)
  8. EOIR reinstates Trump memo on pro bono representation (directing pro bono community to represent more cases before the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer–currently the Acting AG is the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer)
  9. EOIR rescinds child-friendly guidance for removal proceedings involving juveniles and unaccompanied children
  10. EOIR reinstates Trump-era policy memo, giving the agency director, not judges, editorial control over courtroom rules
2. Cutting funding to nonprofits/legal services supporting noncitizens
  1. POTUS Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies directs agency heads to align NGO funding decisions with Trump admin priorities
  2. EO 14159 § 19 directs DOJ and DHS to review, pause, terminate, and claw back contracts or grants with NGOs serving "removable or illegal aliens"
    1. Reported: DOJ orders federally funded legal services providers to stop work on legal aid programs, including EOIR’s Legal Orientation Program, the Immigration Court Helpdesk, the Family Group Legal Orientation program, and the Counsel for Children Initiative
  3. DOJ “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives” memo § II targets current–and blocks future–DOJ funding agreements with NGOs that support removable immigrants
Attacks on “sanctuary jurisdictions”
1. EO 14159 §17 directs DOJ and DHS to take civil and criminal enforcement actions against “sanctuary jurisdictions”
2. DOJ issues “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives” memo
  1. DOJ “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives” § I aims to tie DOJ funding for state and local jurisdictions to immigration enforcement compliance
  2. DOJ “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives” § III requires enforcement against jurisdictions that facilitate violations of federal immigration laws, collaborating with the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group
3. DOJ creates new “Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group”
4. Department of Transportation issues order requiring states and localities to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement in order to receive funding