TRANSCRIPT
"President Trump campaigned on harming our communities. And that's what he's doing in this moment. And he's delivering on his campaign promises, as he did in the first iteration of Trump, 1.0. So in this moment. Am I shocked? No. Am I disappointed? Absolutely, and to see someone like the president punching down on immigrant communities day in and day out now is really devastating."
That's Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.
With a sweep of new executive orders, President Donald Trump has begun his crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration with attempts to end birthright citizenship, expand the deportation of undocumented migrants and allow Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, or ICE, to raid schools and churches.
Mr Trump is now delivering on promises made in the lead up to the US election where he claimed that the country had been invaded and occupied by criminal forces.
TRUMP: "And now America is known all throughout the world as occupied America, they call it occupied. We're being occupied by a criminal force. And we'll begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States. We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country. We will not be conquered, we will not be conquered."
SCHARF (White House staff secretary): "This is a proclamation guaranteeing the state's protection against invasion based on the current crisis on the southern border and invokes various executive powers relating to the ongoing invasion at the southern border."
A 2024 study from the Cato Institute found that undocumented migrants were 26.2 per cent less likely than native-born Americans to be convicted of homicide with documented migrants 61.4 per cent less likely.
The initial phases of Donald Trump's promised plan to deport undocumented migrants en masse appears to be underway, with the Republican-led House of Representatives approving a bill that expands the number of migrants set to be expelled.
The bill, supported by 46 Democrats, requires the detention and deportation of immigrants suspected of theft or other crimes such as shoplifting, even if they have not been charged with any crimes.
Republican congressman Mike Collins says the bill is necessary.
“This is a good bill. It's a commonsense law enforcement bill. Simply states minor level crime now, local law enforcement can contact ICE to get these people detained, processed and deported. These people, these criminals that come across, that inflict violence on American families, they just get more and more emboldened.”
President Trump has also rolled out a blueprint to ramp up security at the southern border, with plans to finish the border wall and force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico.
He's also ordered for the end to automatic citizenship for anyone born in America.
SECRETARY: "This next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment of the United States."
TRUMP: "Ok, that's a good one. Birthright, that's a big one."
18 states have now sued to block what they consider to be the order's direct violation of the 14th amendment of the US constitution.
The order has divided New Yorkers.
VOXIE 1: "I think our country is built on immigrants. And the reason we have birthright citizenship is to encourage people to move here. And if we want to grow our country, that's the best way to do it."
VOXIE 2: "Birthright citizenship, that is a loophole for people to come into the country, have a baby, leave, do whatever they want to do. That money could be better focused on helping those who are actual citizens."
Murad Awawdeh from the New York Immigration Coalition says Mr Trump's attempt to undo automatic citizenship and allow ICE agents to raid sensitive locations like churches and schools is very concerning.
"Every single thing that we have known to be sacred. Schools, churches are sacred. Kids who are born in the United States should be US citizens. That's what has happened for 150 years. There's precedent for this. But no, he wants to create a second class citizenry. And he also wants to ensure that nowhere is safe, because the entire point of this administration is not safety and security. It's cruelty."
Already, deportations are underway on the southern border with around a hundred migrants expelled into the border town of Tijuana.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged for calm though, saying the deportations were actually less than the previous days under the Biden administration.
While President Sheinbaum told the US that Mexico has not yet agreed to accept the deportation of non-Mexican asylum seekers, Mexican authorities have begun constructing massive tent shelters to prepare for a possible influx of Mexican returnees.
Mexican Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez says the temporary shelters in Ciudad Juarez will have the capacity to house thousands of people and should be ready in a matter of days.
"The Government of Mexico has the operational capacity to assist our returning brothers and sisters. They are not alone. On this side of the border, we are ready to receive them."
Hundreds of immigrants rights supporters have gathered on the steps of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California in opposition to President Trump's proposals.
One vigil participant, Liliana Garcia, says the President's deportation agenda could affect people she knows.
"I know a lot of people I go to school with or interact with on a day to day, like they don't really know their situation and how it's going to turn out, especially after the election. And I know a lot of people are worried right now and not just in LA, but just in communities all over the country."
Immigration attorney Priscila Venzor says her community is bracing for what's to come.
“We know what's coming because of we know what has been promised to us over the campaign trail. And he's already sort of started instituting executive orders that he's promised. Like the first time we heard about his desire to want to end birthright citizenship. And that's one of the first executive orders that he instituted.”
