Trump set to implement major border crackdown, intensify deportations

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President-elect Donald Trump plans to launch a sweeping immigration crackdown on Monday that directs military troops to assist with US-Mexico border security, cuts off asylum at the border, and challenges US citizenship for children born to parents in the US illegally, an incoming Trump official said.

Trump intends to declare illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency to support border wall construction and send additional troops to the border, the incoming official said, requesting anonymity as a condition of a call with reporters. Trump will issue a sweeping proclamation that aims to block access to all asylum at the Mexico border, the official said.

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House after promising to intensify border security and deport record numbers of immigrants in the US illegally. While Trump criticized Democrat Joe Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during his presidency, migrant arrests fell dramatically after Biden toughened his policies in June and as Mexico stepped up enforcement.

Republicans say large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants crossed illegally during Biden's presidency. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the US illegally or with a temporary status at the start of 2022, according to a US government estimate, a figure that some analysts now place at 13 million to 14 million.

Americans have grown less welcoming toward immigrants without legal status since Trump's first presidency, but remain wary of harsh measures such as using detention camps, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found.

Trump intends to take 10 executive orders and actions on Monday aimed at stepping up border security, the official said.

"The last four years have created an unconscionable risk to public safety, public health and the national security of the United States due to the Biden administration border policies," the official said, calling illegal immigration an "invasion."

Trump will take steps intended to end birthright citizenship for US-born children whose parents lack legal immigration status, the official said, a move that will almost certainly trigger legal challenges. He plans to suspend the US refugee resettlement program for at least four months and will order a review of security to see if travelers from certain nations should be subject to a travel ban.

Kristi Noem, Trump's pick for Homeland Security secretary, said at a US Senate confirmation hearing on Friday that she would end Biden-era legal entry programs that have allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the US on a temporary basis, but the official speaking to reporters on Monday did not directly address the fate of those programs.

Trump intends to reinstate his first-term "remain in Mexico" program, which forced non-Mexico asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the outcome of the US cases, the official said. Biden ended the program after taking office in 2021, saying migrants were stuck waiting in squalid conditions.

Trump plans to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, the official said. He also plans to prioritize immigration enforcement against criminal offenders and launch federal task forces to work with state and local law enforcement to execute arrests, the official said.

Mexico's presidency, foreign ministry, and economy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump's plans. In a regular press conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called for calm and insisted her government had to see the details of Trump's actions before responding.

Critics and immigrant advocates say mass deportations could disrupt businesses, split families and cost US taxpayers billions of dollars. US farm industry groups want Trump to spare their sector, which depends heavily on immigrants without legal status, but Trump's incoming administration has not publicly offered any guarantees.

Trump's actions could potentially face legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have been preparing for the possibility of litigation, a strategy that stymied many of Trump's hardline policies during his first term. California and other Democratic-led states that have policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement also could clash with Trump.

In Mexican cities along the border with the US, migrants waited anxiously on Monday to see the fate of a Biden-era legal entry program that allows people in Mexico to enter legally if they schedule an appointment on an app known as CBP One. Some 280,000 migrants had been logging into the app daily to secure an appointment as of Jan. 7, a figure that includes Mexicans using the app from their homes.

About two dozen migrants in Ciudad Juarez waited in the cold by the entrance to an international bridge to El Paso, Texas, hoping to cross into the US with CBP One appointments scheduled for 1 p.m., shortly after Trump takes office.

Evelin Vasquez, 29, was there with her three children and hoped to reunite with her husband in California. The family fled Guatemala after criminals threatened to kidnap her children if she did not pay steep extortion fees, Vasquez said.

After waiting for two months in Tapachula, Mexico, to land a CBP One appointment, she was so happy when it arrived that she did not even think about Trump.

Some 745 miles [1,199 km] west in Tijuana, Elena, a 28-year-old Honduran, said she was praying her CBP One appointment on Tuesday would not be canceled. She was raped in Tapachula as she made her way to the US, she said.

"I'm really afraid of being in Mexico," she said. "I ask God to touch Mr. Trump's heart so that he'll let us enter."