As I mentioned last time, the deluge of information about what Donald Trump is doing is overwhelming. Fortunately, the New York Times has been tracking the actions of Donald Trump’s administration since January 20, 2025, posting and categorizing each day’s new events. The last post featured actions related to dismantling government, today’s post reflects those related to the deportation of 11 million immigrants.
Kevin Roberts, writing in the foreword to Project 2025, says: “Illegal immigration should be ended, not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritized.” (Kevin D. Roberts, Project 2025 Foreword, Page 44-45.) For more about Kevin Roberts, the architect behind Project 2025, see this Guardian article.
How would the Trump administration make it happen?
According to civilrights.org, Project 2025 outlines the following actions:
- Enabling a Nationwide Deportation Machine: Project 2025 calls for allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use “expedited removal” — a process normally only used near the border, and one that raises significant concerns about due process — against immigrants found anywhere within the country. It would enable raids in sensitive zones like schools, hospitals, and religious institutions.
- Militarizing the Border: Project 2025 calls for “using military personnel and hardware” to prevent crossings at the border. And it calls for new laws to shut down the border — including higher hurdles for asylum seekers — and to increase wall construction.
- Expanding Immigrant “Detention” Centers: Project 2025 calls for more than doubling the number of immigrants, up to 100,000 on any day, who can be locked up while facing deportation. It calls for more immigrants to be subject to mandatory deportation, regardless of whether they are a flight or public safety risk.
- Eliminating Popular Relief Programs and Visa Categories: Project 2025 calls, indirectly, for ending protections for more than half a million Dreamers who arrived here as children, in addition to 176,000 Ukrainians who fled the war in their country. Directly, it calls on Congress to repeal all Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations, which would cause nearly 700,000 immigrants — many of whom have been living and working here for decades — to lose work authorization and face deportation. It would also cut back or eliminate numerous categories of temporary and permanent visas.
- Mandating Misguided Work Verification Programs: Project 2025 would expand E-Verify, a system intended to prove that employees are eligible to work in the United States, but which relies on highly error-prone systems that have shut out eligible workers — especially people of color.
- Entangling Local and Federal Enforcement: Project 2025 calls for the expansion of state and local police involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and it calls for penalizing states and localities that don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities — including through the opening up of motor vehicle and voter registration databases.
Let’s have a look at actions to date.
- Announced the move to end birthright citizenship (Jan 20); later, asked the Supreme Court to rule in favor of ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants (Mar 13)
- Ordered the military to make border security a priority (Jan 20)
- Suspend the refugee resettlement program (Jan 20)
- Declared that there is an invasion at the southern border (Jan 20)
- Ordered a 60-day study to identify countries from which to potentially bar admission of nationals based on their vetting and screening processes (Jan 20)
- Barred asylum for people arriving at the southern border (Jan 20)
- Threatened to prosecute local officials who obstruct immigration enforcement (Jan 22)
- Said US would send 1500 troops to southern border (Jan 22)
- Cancelled flights for refugees already approved for travel to US (Jan 22)
- Moved to expel migrants Biden allowed in temporarily (Jan 23)
- Moved to give state and local governments authority to enforce immigration laws (Jan 24)
- Revoked deportation protection for Venezuelans (Jan 28)
- Said US would hold migrants at Guantanamo (Jan 29)
- Filed a lawsuit against sanctuary laws in Chicago (Feb 6)
- Moved to dismiss criminal case against Mayor Adams of New York (Feb 10) – in exchange for support on deportations; sued New York for its immigration policies (Feb 12);
- Asked the Internal Revenue Service to help crack down on immigration (Feb 10)
- Deported Asian migrants to Panama (Feb 12); Left hundreds of deported migrants trapped in a Panama hotel after they were flown out by the U.S. military (Feb 18)
- Fired 18 immigration judges (Feb 14)
- Toughened security requirements for sponsors of migrant children (Feb 14)
- Eliminated federal benefits for undocumented immigrants (Feb 19)
- Cut protections for Haitians, putting them on track for deportation this summer (Feb 20)
- Proposed using U.S. military sites to detain undocumented immigrants (Feb 21)
- Replaced the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Feb 21)
- Announced on Truth Social that “our southern border is closed” (Feb 22)
- Transported more migrants to Guantánamo Bay (Feb 23)
- Deported 65 migrants to Costa Rica (Feb 25)
- Pushed the Internal Revenue Service to turn over addresses of roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security (Feb 28)
- Said U.S. would send 3,000 additional troops to the southwestern border (Mar 1)
- Planned a ban on travel to the United States from certain countries (Mar 6)
- Signed an executive order denying student loan relief to workers aiding immigrants and transgender youth (Mar 7)
- Arrested and sent to immigration detention a Palestinian activist at Columbia University who has legal permanent residency, according to detainee’s lawyer (Mar 8); moved to deport this individual Mahmoud Khalil (Mar 10)
- Planned to invoke an obscure wartime authority in the coming days to rapidly accelerate the deportation of immigrants (Mar 13)
- Invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in an order to remove unauthorized immigrants with little due process (Mar 15)
- Announced that the administration has sent hundreds of people accused of being Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador (Mar 16)
- Deported a doctor – Dr. Rasha Alawieh – with a valid visa despite a court order (Mar 16)
- Moved to deport a Georgetown University academic for ‘spreading Hamas propaganda’ (Mar 19)
Most of these actions support the primary objective of establishing a nationwide deportation machine. Just think about that phrase for a moment: a nationwide deportation machine.
Beyond the horror of actions taken against illegal immigrants, it is also chilling to see targeted actions against individuals such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rasha Alawieh who have valid visas and who spoke out on behalf of Palestinians. Such steps put everyone in the US with valid visas on notice. Don’t step out of line or else.
For comparison, we could look at Viktor Orban of Hungary who “made a point of honor drafting an anti-immigration manifesto, in which he defines Hungary’s new wanted enemies: illegal migrants.” At the time, “the government – and somehow the population – needed to find a scapegoat to blame for the bad economic conditions, and economic migrants happen to be an easy target. (Quotes taken from Institute for International Relations Prague.) Does this sound familiar? By the way, Hitler initially took action against communists and Social Democrats, trade unionists, Jehovah Witness, gays, the Roma, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime by sending them to places like Dachau.
In closing, it’s striking to note that both Germany and the UK have recently updated their advice on travel to the US by cautioning their citizens about such travel. A few Canadians have also been targeted by ICE or other law enforcement officials, some detained for several days, others having their phones searched for evidence.
Where will all this lead?
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION – YES, I PROMISE TO CONTINUE FEATURING HISTORICAL FICTION – FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page.
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
