Here Are the Major Steps President Trump Took in 2025 to Tackle Immigration Reform
If 2025 was any indication, 2026 is going to be a banner year for immigration reform at the federal level.
Remember, when President Donald Trump took office in January of 2025, we’d seen tens of millions of illegal immigrants from all over the globe pour over our southern border. Venezuelan gangs were taking over apartment complexes in Colorado, Haitian migrants causing massive strife in Ohio, illegals who claimed asylum given court dates in the 2030s and paroled into the United States.
That began to end on day one of the Trump administration — and, thanks to these steps, we have projected negative net migration into the country in 2025.
It began, as the Daily Signal notes, with an executive order signed on the first day of the president’s second term declaring the illegal immigration situation an “emergency” and allowing him to deploy both military personnel and other resources to the southern border to fight the issue.
“In addition to the emergency declaration, Trump signed executive orders on his first day in office ending ‘catch and release’ at the border, reinstating the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, temporarily suspending processing of refugee applications, and more,” the Daily Signal noted.
Another first-day executive order which remains to be decided by the courts effectively ended the policy of birthright citizenship.
Birthright citizenship — which means being born on American soil automatically entitles you to American citizenship — is based on a reading of the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Leaving aside the fact that the intent of this was to ensure the post-Civil War South recognized the citizenship of black Americans, the phase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is another bone of contention. If one’s parents are not born in the United States or here legally, the Trump administration contends, they are not fully subject to its jurisdiction under the meaning of the amendment.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the case this year, and it could be the blockbuster legal case of 2026.
Then came the new detention facilities for illegal immigrants who couldn’t be illegally deported. “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida became the most well-known of this, but it’s hardly the only one, including other facilities in Louisiana, Alabama, and Indiana that have been given similarly catchy nicknames.
“Louisiana Lockup, Cornhusker Clink, and Speedway Slammer give ICE the ability to lock up some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and gang members,” the Department of Homeland Security said.
More than that, it set a new precedent. No longer would catch-and-release and massive backlogs mean that illegal immigrants would hang around for decades while their cases were processed.
For that matter, the Trump administration set about purging activist immigration judges who made it harder to deport illegal immigrants.
Since January, over 100 judges with soft records on giving illegals asylum were told to take a hike. In one case, a judge who adjudicated 620 asylum claims between 2019 and 2024 gave asylum for 544 of those cases and 12 other types of relief. That’s almost 90 percent of cases decided in favor of asylum — and this was hardly someone dealing with people escaping the Juche regime in North Korea on boats.
Other judges denied 57.7 percent of claims — and while she was arguably the worst of the worst, getting rid of soft-on-asylum immigration jurists is a major step for the administration.
There were also Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in cities across the country, most notably Los Angeles. And, while local leaders tried their hand at #TheResistance2.0, it didn’t go quite as they had hoped:
Rep. Maxine Waters just had the door of an ICE facility slammed in her face by a cop
Give this man a raise
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 8, 2025
For that matter, the Trump administration showed that it was no longer willing to be manipulated by a media that tried to pull at America’s heartstrings by siding with lawbreakers who siphoned off American resources. No case illustrated this better than that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Consistently described as a “Maryland father” illegally deported to El Salvador, the truth was a whole lot uglier than that. Abrego Garcia, a gang-affiliated illegal who was suspected in numerous criminal activities, was set to be deported in 2019 when he claimed credible fear of being harmed by gangs in his native country.
The judge granted him a withholding of removal to El Salvador and he remained here until 2025, during which he faced allegations of domestic abuse against his wife and was suspected of human trafficking of illegal immigration during a 2022 traffic stop.
But, when he was deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error,” the left freaked out, and Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States was facilitated. Instead of letting the case quietly die and let the media win this one, however, the Department of Justice indicted him on the 2022 human trafficking case.
Suffice it to say, instead of this all going away easily — as it would have had he returned to El Salvador, where gang violence has dropped precipitously and he would likely be in no danger — things would be significantly easier on everyone. No such luck.
Granted, there remain tough days ahead. It’s difficult to undo tens of millions of illegal immigrants let in thanks to Joe Biden’s malfeasance, and ICE agents continue to be the target of violent ire from the left.
But if 2025 is any indication, the tide is turning on illegal immigration in a yuge way — and the best, one hopes, is yet to come.
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