Trump’s day one executive orders take aim at immigration, trans rights and oil drilling. What we know
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Within his first moments after he is sworn into office, Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to surge troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, freeze asylum claims, upend the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship, and deny the existence of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people throughout the government.
He is also preparing to axe diversity, equity and inclusion programs and swiftly cut regulations on oil production.
The extraordinary executive orders, previewed by incoming White House officials on Monday, are likely to face enormous legal backlash from civil rights groups and advocacy groups, drawing constitutional battles as Trump tests the limits of his authority.
Immigration
Trump will sign 10 executive orders related to immigration in an effort to create a “common sense” policy in response to immigration that poses an “unconscionable risk” to public safety, public health and national security, an incoming White House official told reporters on Monday.
The official described immigration as an “invasion” that has “caused widespread chaos and suffering.”
One order will declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border to “erect physical barriers” and deploy military assets under the command of the Secretary of Defense. It is unclear how many troops will be assigned to the southern border.
Trump will also end birthright citizenship with an order that “clarifies” that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution “does not recognize” citizenship for children born to parents who arrived in the country without legal permission.
“On a prospective basis, the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” the official said.
Another order will reinstate the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy to force people to stay on the other side of the southern border while their immigration cases are pending with U.S. courts and authorities.
The administration will also freeze asylum claims — a right guaranteed under both U.S. and international law — and pause a decades-long refugee resettlement program for at least four months.
Trump will also designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, though it is unclear what U.S. law enforcement and military actions that could entail.
“We have not made any determination on what that would necessarily look like right now,” the official said. “It’s up to the Secretary of Defense at this point [and] Secretary of State.”
The administration will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to declare Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua an “irregular armed force of the Venezuelan government.”
Another order will establish that “illegal aliens” convicted of murdering law enforcement officers and other “capital crimes committed by illegal aliens,” according to the official.
“This is about national security, this is about public safety,” the official said. “It ends today.”
Trump also ended the CBP One app, which has been used by more than 900,000 people to schedule appointments with immigration authorities at the southern border since it was introduced in January 2023.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have estimated roughly 270,000 people on the other side of the border were in the process of trying to get an appointment through the app. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will honor any of those requests.
The app allowed people living outside the country to request an appointment at an official port of entry to begin their asylum claims and immigration paperwork, but has been falsely characterized by Trump and his allies as a fast track for illegal immigration.
Gender identity and LGBT+ rights
Trump will also sign a pair of executive orders intended to roll back the Biden administration’s efforts to recognize and accommodate transgender people at the federal level and end federal efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The first order would state that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female” as “exes that are not changeable and … grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
“The definitions of these, sex means an individual’s immutable biological classifications, either male or female and woman means biological female, man, biological male,” an incoming administration official said.
“Female is then being defined not through chromosomes, but female means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” said the official, adding that the incoming administration is not defining sex by a person’s chromosomes because “the binary nature of sex … is deeper than [a person’s genetic makeup].”
The official also said Trump would order the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other departments to “ensure that official government documents, including passports and visas, reflect sex accurately.”
The order will also direct the Attorney General to promulgate guidance on how the federal government will apply the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision granting anti-discrimination protections to transgender Americans.
Trump’s order would also rescind Biden-era guidance and other orders signed during the Biden administration to eliminate what the official described as “radical gender ideology” from government.
A second order would focus on “ending radical and wasteful government [diversity, equity and inclusion] programs and preferencing,” describing such initiatives as illegal discrimination.
“This order is meant to return to the promise and the hope that … one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character and not by the color of their skin,” the official said.
Trump will separately direct the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management to “coordinate with the various agencies to terminate all discriminatory programs.”
Oil and gas drilling and the economy
Trump is fulfilling his campaign’s pledge to “drill, baby, drill” with a series of executive actions to “unleash affordable and reliable American energy,” according to an incoming administration official.
The president is once again pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accords, putting the country alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside forgoing the 2015 pact, in which governments agree to emissions in the midst of the climate crisis.
Trump will also issue an executive order to declare a “national energy emergency” to authorize drilling in Alaska, the official said.
“The rationale for this national energy emergency is that high costs of energy are unnecessary,” according to the official. “They are by design. It is a cause of policy. We can address that, but it’s intuitive for the American people over the past four years, and something that we immediately need to rectify our nation’s prosperity.”
The emergency declaration is also “crucial” for generating power to compete in the artificial intelligence race with China, according to the official.
Trump will also sign a “memorandum” on inflation, but the official did not offer details on what that would look like.
“Here we’re going to see an all-of-government approach to bringing down costs for all American citizens,” the official said.
