LIVE: US starts sending illegal immigrants back home
Those arrested included a suspected terrorist, four members of a crime gang and many illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors
Cracking the whip on illegal migration, the US administration under President Donald Trump on Thursday (January 23) arrested over 538 illegal immigrants staying in the US while deporting hundreds of others in military aircraft in what the White House called the “largest massive deportation operation in history”.
“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals including a suspected terrorist, four members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and several illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.
Underlining that deportation flights have begun, she asserted that President Trump is "sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences".
Stay on birthright citizenship ban
Earlier in the day federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents' immigration status.
US District Judge John C. Coughenour ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship. "This is blatantly unconstitutional order," the judge told a lawyer with the US Justice Department defending Trump's order.
The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are US citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won't become US citizens.
Key executive order
Signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, the order is slated to take effect on February 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits.
In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle.
The US is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalised in the US, and states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century.
Also read:
Indian couples rush for preterm deliveries to beat Trump’s citizenship deadline
Does return of 18,000 'illegal Indians' from US spell trouble for Modi?
22 US states sue to stop Trump's Birthright Citizenship order
Trump backs H-1B visa, says US needs ‘competent people’
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Live Updates
- 23 Jan 2025 7:21 AM IST
Mexican border states prepare migrant shelters
Mexico on Wednesday raised sprawling tents on the US border as it braced for US President Donald Trump to fulfil his pledge to carry out mass deportations.
In an empty lot right against the border with El Paso, Texas, cranes lifted metal frames for tent shelters in Ciudad Juárez.
Enrique Serrano, an official in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juárez is located, said the tents erected for Mexican deportees were just the initial phase of a potential larger operation, and something authorities would scale up if the number of migrants gathering on the border continued to mount.
He suggested migrants from other countries expelled from the US would be relocated to Mexico City or southern regions of Mexico as they’ve done previously.
Nogales, Mexico — across from Nogales, Arizona — announced that it would build shelters on soccer fields and in a gymnasium. The border cities of Matamoros and Piedras Negras have also launched similar efforts.
- 23 Jan 2025 7:20 AM IST
Immigrant detention bill to be Trump's first law to sign in new term
The Republican-led House has given its final approval to a bill that requires the detainment of unauthorised immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes, marking the first legislation that US President Donald Trump can sign as Congress, with some bipartisan support, swiftly moved in line with his plans to crackdown on illegal immigration.
Passage of the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man, shows just how sharply the political debate over immigration has shifted to the right following Trump's election victory.
Immigration policy has often been one of the most entrenched issues in Congress, but a crucial faction of 46 politically vulnerable Democrats joined with Republicans to lift the strict proposal to passage on a 263-156 vote tally.
Senator Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, called the legislation “perhaps the most significant immigration enforcement bill” to be passed by Congress in nearly three decades. Still, the bill would require a massive ramp-up in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's capabilities, but it does not include any new funding.
Meanwhile, the new president has launched a slew of executive orders intended to seal off the border of Mexico to immigration and ultimately deport millions of immigrants without permanent legal status in the US.
On Wednesday, Trump also cancelled refugee resettlement while his administration signalled intentions to prosecute local law enforcement officials who do not enforce his new immigration policies.
