Washington:

Donald Trump will issue a raft of executive orders aimed at reshaping how the United States deals with citizenship and immigration, he said on Monday minutes after his inauguration.

The 47th president will set to work almost immediately with a series of presidential decrees intended to drastically reduce the number of migrants entering the country.

“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” Trump said.

“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.

“I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” he said.

Trump, who campaigned on a platform of clamping down on migration and whose policies are popular with people who fret over changing demographics, also intends to put an end to the centuries-old practice of granting citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States.

“We’re going to end asylum,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told reporters, and create “an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum. We are then going to end birthright citizenship.”

The notion of birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution, which grants anyone born on US soil the right to an American passport.

Kelly said the actions Trump takes would “clarify” the 14th Amendment — the clause that addresses birthright citizenship.

“Federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” she said.

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

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

“We’re going to… reinstate Remain in Mexico and build the wall,” she said.

Kelly said Trump would also seek to use the death penalty against non-citizens who commit capital crimes, such as 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.

Court challenges 

Many of Trump’s executive actions taken during his first term were rescinded under Joe Biden, including one using so-called Title 42, which was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic preventing almost all entry to the country on public health grounds.

The changes under Biden led to an influx of people crossing into the United States, and images of thousands of people packing the border area.

Trump and his allies characterized this as Biden’s “open border” policy, and spoke regularly of an “invasion.”

The incoming president 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.

While US presidents enjoy a range of powers, they are not unlimited.

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

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a Senior Fellow 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.”

Reichlin-Malik said all sides of the immigration debate recognized that the laws needed reform, but presidential orders were unlikely to achieve lasting change.

“Instituting new travel bans will make the US legal immigration system even more complex and expensive and difficult to navigate than ever,” he said.

“Our immigration system is badly out of date, and executive actions aiming to restrict it even further will harm the United States.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US President Donald Trump vowed Monday that the world’s biggest economy would again see itself as “a growing nation” that expands its territory, adding that the country would plant its flag on Mars.

“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” he said in his inauguration speech at the US Capitol in Washington.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

President-elect Donald Trump consulted privately with Republican senators on Sunday (January 19, 2025) before heading off to a series of events designed to celebrate his return to power and the “Make America Great Again” movement, despite deep national political divisions on the eve of his inauguration.

The private meeting featured a breakfast at Blair House, the president’s official guest residence, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, and gave top GOP leaders a chance to lay last-minute plans barely 24 hours before Mr. Trump moves back into the White House.

Meanwhile, Trump supporters, many arriving from around the country and decked out in their fanciest clothes, including fur coats, filled parties — both formal and informal — at hotels and restaurants close to the White House. As they moved between the festivities, some could be heard chanting “MAGA” or simply stating it as a greeting to fellow revelers.

Sunday is Trump’s first full day back in Washington since his election victory and gives him a chance to fire up his core supporters before the official pomp of Inauguration Day, including the swearing-in at noon.

Also read | Trump would have been convicted if he wasn’t elected: U.S. Justice Department in special counsel report

The nation’s capital has prepared in unprecedented ways to keep the events safe and secure. But unlike when Mr. Trump helped spark a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and tried to retain power in 2021 after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, officials are not expecting massive protests, unrest or violence. Instead, the city is braced for crowds celebrating Trump’s second term and MAGA’s total control of the Republican Party.

It is a remarkable turnaround from four years ago, when Mr. Trump left the nation’s capital in disgrace and skipped the inauguration of his successor. He blasted his way through the 2024 GOP presidential primary and won in November with an Electoral College margin unseen since Barack Obama was reelected in 2012.

Yet even with that comfortable victory and his party in full — albeit narrow — control of Congress, the incoming president remains one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. history, with nearly as many fierce detractors as ardent supporters. That means it could be difficult for Trump to fulfill postelection pledges to promote bipartisanship while healing political differences.

The president-elect has insisted that unity will be a theme of his inauguration speech Monday, along with strength and fairness, but he also spent months as a candidate saying that if elected he would seek retribution against political enemies.

Also read | Thousands protest in Washington DC against Donald Trump ahead of inauguration

“January 20th cannot come fast enough!,” Mr. Trump posted on his social media site. “Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen.”

With frigid temperatures expected Monday, Mr. Trump directed his oath of office and most of Monday’s outdoor events to be moved indoors. Officials held a rehearsal Sunday inside the U.S. Capitol. But because the Rotunda holds only 600 people, it was unclear if the 250,000-plus guests who had tickets to view the inauguration from around the Capitol grounds would have any opportunity to watch.

Large viewing screens that were erected around the National Mall were taken down, although Trump said there would be word on alternative, indoor locations for viewing the ceremonies. The traditional parade was to be held, in some form, at Capital One Arena, home to Washington’s pro basketball and hockey teams and where Trump was planning to address a MAGA rally later Sunday.

Meanwhile, national and global events drew some of Trump’s attention Sunday. He took to his social media site to comment on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the U.S. ban on TikTok.

“Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Overnight, millions of U.S. users of TikTok lost the ability to watch videos on the social media platform as a federal ban on the app took effect. Though the site later began flickering to life for some users, the disruptions reflected a new law requiring its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest for national security reasons.

The company made a personal appeal to Mr. Trump to intervene, posting a message saying, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”

Mr. Trump subsequently posted, “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” He promised to issue an executive order Monday “to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”

The president-elect also wrote that he was interested in the U.S. owning 50% of TikTok in a “joint venture” model, though he did not offer much detail on what that would look like. Incoming national security adviser Michael Waltz insisted that Trump could find a solution by Monday.

“I think we should all be confident that he can craft that kind of a deal,” Mr. Waltz told CBS’ ”Face the Nation.” He also noted that Mr. Trump discussed TikTok on a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping and they “agreed to work together on this.”

“What we need between now and Monday is to buy the president some time to evaluate those deals,” Mr. Waltz said. “And if it goes dark, that’s going to be, obviously, extremely problematic.”

After meeting with senators, Mr. Trump headed to snow-covered graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where he and Vice President-elect JD Vance — each wearing dark overcoats and red ties — walked together to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a wreath-laying ceremony that included the playing of taps. Trump mouthed “thank you” after placing the wreath.

The ceremony was also attended by his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, and other relatives.

Many of Mr. Trump’s picks for the incoming administration’s Cabinet also stood quietly by. They included his choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, the choice for director of national intelligence, as well as Mr. Trump’s announced ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik. Several medal of honor recipients were also there, wearing their medals.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance later spent nearly half an hour in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, talking with families of three soldiers who died in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing, as well as a fourth whom they did not identify.

The scene was far different than in August, when two Trump campaign staff members reportedly verbally “abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60.