Washington DC:

The American Dream has come crashing down for millions and millions of people who line up to get a chance to settle in the United States. Donald Trump has, with one signature, shut the door for them permanently – a door which Joe Biden’s administration is accused of exploiting in order to allow illegal immigrants and asylum seekers to get legal entry to the United States.

CBP One, a mobile app launched by the US Customs and Border Protection, through which over a million illegal immigrants and asylum seekers got legal status, was shut down by Donald Trump within hours of him taking oath as President for a second term.

When the CBP One app was launched in October 2020, its use was only to help commercial trucking companies schedule cargo inspections at border crossings. But in January 2023, the Biden administration expanded its utility to include unauthorised and illegal migrants seeking asylum or protection in the US from violence, poverty, or persecution in their home countries.

Within three months, it was further expanded by the Biden administration in order to make it the only path to seek asylum on the US-Mexico border. It became the sole method for asylum appointments. This soon gained widespread popularity, with as many as one million people successful in getting appointments using the app – which roughly translates to around 1,450 appointments per day.

Under the scheme, illegal and unauthorised immigrants could apply for an appointment in advance on the CBP One App. Every day the App would select applications on what is widely described as a “lottery system” and 1,450 applicants would get an appointment. Once approved, the illegal immigrant would get legal entry into the United States from one of the eight border crossings in the South. They would be given a legal status to live and work in America. Such applicants would be eligible to seek “parole” into the United States – a presidential privilege that Joe Biden has used more than any other US President since its creation in 1952.

The pace and scale of this soon came under heavy criticism from Donald Trump and his allies, who cried foul and targeted the Biden administration for giving legal status to illegal immigrants by the help of this mobile app.

This went on for one-and-a-half years till the US election in 2024 saw Donald Trump win a historic second term to the White House. He had vehemently opposed illegal immigration and had made electoral promises to bring sweeping changes to the US’ immigration policy. He had even threatened to “deport millions and millions of illegal aliens”.

On January 20, when he took oath of office as President, his first move was to sign a record number of executive orders – one of which was on massive curbs and changes to the immigration system. In this, he put an immediate ban on the CBP One app. With the stroke of his pen, the app got suspended and all existing and future appointments went into a deep freeze indefinitely, bringing an end to the only channel asylum seekers could explore.

A notice on the US Customs and Border Protection website and App read: “Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One App that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.”

Donald Trump didn’t stop there. His day-one executive order on immigration curbs included declaring a “national emergency along the southern border” with Mexico. He even declared that troops will be deployed within days to put all illegal entry into the United States to a grinding halt. In addition to this, Donald Trump also declared that his administration will begin imposing a massive 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people to cross the border illegally.

“We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada, because they’re allowing vast numbers of people” across the border, Trump said in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Monday night. “I think we’ll do it starting February 1.”

By taking these measures, Donald Trump has delivered on his election promise – that he would act on illegal immigration on Day 1 of his presidency. It is yet to be seen if he will be able to “deport millions” as he had assured US citizens. Donald Trump’s executive orders are certain to be challenged in court. NGO organisations like Amnesty International are likely to challenge them.
 

Washington DC:

President Donald Trump announced severe new restrictions on immigration and asylum in the United States hours after taking office Monday, declaring that he will send troops to the US-Mexico border and attempt to end birthright citizenship.

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and used a careening press conference in the Oval Office to announce the controversial order seeking to revoke the right of US nationality to anyone born in America.

“That’s a big one,” he told reporters.

The move to reverse a right enshrined in the US Constitution will face stiff legal challenges, an inevitability the president acknowledged.

“I think we have good grounds, but you could be right,” he said when asked about the pushback.

Another executive order declared a national emergency on the US-Mexico border.

“I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it,” he said.

“But we have to have legal immigration.”

Earlier, in his inaugural speech, he announced he would be sending troops to the US-Mexico border “to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.” 

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” he said.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly announced earlier that the administration would end the practice of granting asylum.

Appointments Canceled

The first effects of Trump’s stance became apparent minutes after his inauguration when an app unveiled under president Joe Biden to help process asylum seekers went offline.

US media reported 30,000 people had appointments scheduled.

Trump’s key adviser and noted immigration hardliner Stephen Miller took to social media to announce that the doors were shut.

“All illegal aliens seeking entry into the United States should turn back now,” he wrote.

“Anyone entering the United States without authorization faces prosecution and expulsion.”

Kelly said the administration would also reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed under Trump’s first administration.

Under that rule, people who apply to enter the United States at the Mexican border were not allowed to do so until their application had been decided.

On the US-Mexican border, there was despair.

“Since we are here, please let us in,” said Yaime Perez, a 27-year-old Cuban.

“Please, after all the work we have put in to get here, let us enter your country, so that we can better ourselves in life and be somebody,” she said.

Court Challenges

Kelly said Trump would seek to use the death penalty against non-citizens who commit capital crimes including murder.

“This is about national security. This is about public safety, and this is about the victims of some of the most violent, abusive criminals we’ve seen enter our country in our lifetime, and it ends today,” she said.

Many of Trump’s first-term executive actions were rescinded under Biden, including one using so-called Title 42, implemented during the Covid pandemic preventing almost all entry to the country on public health grounds.

The changes under Biden led to an influx of migrants, with images of thousands of people packing the border area.

Trump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal migration was “poisoning the blood” of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Analysts say any effort to alter birthright citizenship will be fraught.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the 14th Amendment was “crystal clear” in granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States with the exception of children of foreign diplomats. 

“We have had birthright citizenship for centuries, and a president cannot take it away with an executive order,” he told AFP. “We expect rapid court challenges.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)