By Eric Pearson
Trying to decipher what reforms to immigration policy take place at the Federal level is surprisingly challenging. With virtually every news source being accused of misrepresenting, omitting, or inventing fact by political figures on both sides of the aisle, getting information second hand at all seems to be a risky venture. This article will present the bare bones of what has changed under the 115th Congress and the Trump presidency concerning immigration. Congress has not passed any new bills concerning immigration.
President Trump, however, has signed 17 executive orders, six of which concern immigration. These executive orders have the immediate effect of law and what is filling newscasts. It is worth noting, however, that they are not laws. Whoever is in office has the power to undo any and all of the previous president's executive orders with the stroke of the pen.
Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States directs federal agencies to use, “all lawful means to enforce the immigration laws of the United States” (section 1). While this order does influence agencies to be stricter, it is constrained by the same laws as the previous administration.
Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements most notably orders the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate steps” to “construct a physical wall along the southern border” (section 4 subsection A). This order, however, cannot appropriate funds for the wall and requires action by Congress to take effect.
Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, issued on January 27, was the one ruled unconstitutional.
Presidential Executive Order on a Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety creates a task force controlled by the Attorney General to “exchange information”, “develop strategies”, “identify deficiencies in existing laws”, and “improve data collection”(section 2) for “illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and violent crime” (section 1).
Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking establishes that “the policy of the executive branch” (section 2) is to “strengthen enforcement of Federal law” (section 2 subsection A) in order to dismantle “organized crime syndicates” (section 1).
Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States, issued on March six, is a modified version of the order signed under the same name. It does several things, the two most notable are as follows. One clause establishes a “temporary pause on the entry of nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen” (section 1 subsection G). A second clause orders that the Secretary of State “shall suspend decisions on applications for refugee status, for 120 days” (section 6 subsection A). This order has also been ruled unconstitutional by a district court in Hawaii.
Despite the press surrounding these issues and executive orders, very little has officially changed.
Photo courtesy of history.com
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