Politics
Trump’s orders have upended U.S. immigration. What legal routes remain?
Promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, President Trump, in his first days in office, has released a dramatic series of executive orders and other policy changes that will reshape the country’s immigration system — and the experience of what it means to live in the U.S. as an immigrant, particularly one who is undocumented.
There are an estimated 13 million to 15 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including more than 2.5 million in California.
That includes people who crossed the border illegally, people who overstayed their visas and people who have requested asylum. It does not include people who entered the country under various temporary humanitarian programs, or who have obtained Temporary Protected Status, which gives people the right to live and work in the U.S. temporarily because of disasters or strife in their home countries.
However, many of the people who came to the U.S. using those legal pathways could also be at risk of deportation, because of other actions the Trump administration has taken.
What exactly has the Trump administration done?
Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting immigration that, as the Migration Policy Institute noted, do one of three things: sharply limit legal pathways for entering the U.S., bolster enforcement efforts to seal off the U.S.-Mexico border or promote aggressive sweeps to round up and deport people living in the U.S. illegally. Some of the orders have already been challenged in court, and advocates said others could be soon.
Among the most consequential orders:
- The president declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, which will enable him to deploy military troops there.
- He moved to end birthright citizenship, which has long been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union and more than 20 states, including California, have sued, arguing the order is unconstitutional. In a ruling issued in one of those cases on Jan. 23, a federal judge temporarily halted the order while the legal challenges play out.
- He suspended the refugee admissions program as of Jan. 27 for at least 90 days. Last fiscal year, the U.S. resettled more than 100,000 refugees, the highest number in three decades.
Has the new administration done anything else that affects immigration?
Yes. Among the significant actions:
- Hours after Trump took office, his new administration shut down the CBP One mobile app. The Biden administration had expanded use of CBP One to create a more orderly process of applying for asylum. Migrants could use the app, once they reached Mexican soil, to schedule appointments with U.S. authorities at legal ports of entry to present their bids for asylum and provide biographical information for screening.
- In a related action, the administration has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the power to quickly deport about 1.4 million immigrants who were granted legal entry to the U.S. for up to two years through two Biden-era programs: migrants who came in through the CBP One program and were granted parole status as they await hearings on their asylum pleas; and migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who were granted temporary parole while seeking asylum.
- In a notice posted Jan. 21, the administration said it would empower immigration authorities to fast-track deportations of people in the country illegally without a judicial hearing. The ACLU has sued to try to halt the plan.
- The Department of Homeland Security has rescinded long-standing guidelines prohibiting immigration agents from making arrests in “sensitive” locations such as schools, hospitals and churches.
- Benjamine Huffman, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has declared a “mass influx” of illegal immigrants at the southern border, which authorizes the department to deputize state and local law enforcement officers to conduct immigration enforcement.
- ICE has begun conducting publicized immigration raids in many cities, including New York and Chicago. The administration said it was targeting undocumented people with criminal records. But in a briefing this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration views all undocumented immigrants as criminals, because they have violated immigration laws.
So, what are the numbers? Have more people been deported since Trump took office?
ICE authorities this week have been posting daily figures on the agency’s X account citing the number of undocumented immigrants arrested, including 1,179 on Jan. 27 and 969 on Jan. 28. Axios reported this week that ICE made 3,500 arrests during Trump’s first week in office. During Biden’s final year in office, the arrest number was about 350 a week.
It is too soon to evaluate deportation numbers. On Jan. 27, ICE posted on X that: “In one week, law enforcement officials have removed and returned 7,300 illegal aliens.”
If that pace continues, and ICE removes 7,300 immigrants every week for a year, that would result in the forced removal of more than 350,000 people. That figure would outpace removals during the Biden administration. But during the Obama administration, ICE removals peaked at nearly 410,000 in fiscal year 2012. Obama’s enforcement policies targeted undocumented immigrants with criminal records and people who had recently crossed the border without authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute, while placing low priority on people with established roots in U.S. communities and without criminal records.
What are the current avenues for legal immigration?
- People who have a close family member who is a U.S. citizen can still apply. But if the Trump administration resurrects travel bans barring people from certain countries from entering the U.S., that could limit applications to certain nationalities.
- People deemed to have valuable skills can apply for temporary or permanent employment visas, although in many cases there are years-long waits for such visas. Employers can petition for temporary work visas for foreign nationals for specific jobs. Permanent work visas are capped at 140,000 per year, a figure that includes the immigrants plus their eligible spouses and minor, unmarried children, according to the American Immigration Council.
- Immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. are eligible for a green-card lottery.
- Visas are still available for parents adopting a child from another country.
What’s going on with Dreamers?
While Trump tried to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, during his first administration, he has not yet touched the program this time around.
The Obama-era program grants a renewable work permit and temporary reprieve from deportation to certain people who came to the U.S. as children. An estimated 537,730 people had DACA protection as of September, with the vast majority being from Mexico, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The legality of the program remains mired in the federal courts.
What are sanctuary policies, and why is the Trump administration targeting them?
There isn’t one clear definition of a sanctuary policy. The term generally applies to policies that limit state and local officials from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration enforcement duties.
California’s 2017 sanctuary law, the California Values Act, prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from investigating, interrogating and arresting people simply for immigration enforcement purposes. The law does not prevent federal authorities from carrying out those enforcement duties in California. And it does allow local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials in limited circumstances, including in cases involving immigrants convicted of certain violent felonies and misdemeanors.
Under L.A.’s sanctuary city law, city employees and city property may not be used to “investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person” for the purpose of immigration enforcement. An exception is made for law enforcement investigating serious offenses. L.A. Unified’s sanctuary policy prohibits staff from voluntarily cooperating in an immigration enforcement action, including sharing information about a student’s immigration status.
An executive order issued on Trump’s first day in office threatens to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to interfere with federal law enforcement operations. A memo from the Department of Justice, meanwhile, said state and local officials could be investigated and prosecuted for not complying with Trump’s crackdown on immigration enforcement.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has called the pronouncement “a scare tactic,” and vowed legal action “if the Trump administration’s vague threats turn to illegal action.”
If immigration authorities make mass arrests, does the U.S. have space to detain all the immigrants?
That depends on several factors.
On average, nearly 40,000 people have been locked up in ICE detention centers on a daily basis during fiscal year 2025. There is probably capacity in the system for additional detainees, but how much isn’t entirely clear, according to Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project.
What is clear is that the administration intends to expand the ICE detention footprint. On Wednesday, Trump directed his administration to begin using the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the detention of 30,000 “high priority” immigrants. The military also is allowing ICE to detain undocumented immigrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, according to multiple news reports.
ICE operates six detention facilities in California, with capacity for nearly 7,200 detainees, and is pressing to expand. Agency officials are looking for space to accommodate 850 to 950 people within two hours of its San Francisco regional field offices, a development first reported by CalMatters.
The agency is also looking to increase detention capacity in Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, according to federal documents obtained by CalMatters.
ICE facilities, which are largely run by private prison corporations, have been dogged by allegations of poor medical care and inhumane treatment. A 2019 law that would have banned private immigration facilities in California was overturned by the federal courts.
Times staff writers Kate Linthicum, Brittny Mejia, Andrea Castillo and Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump greenlights Russian sanctions bill, paving way for 500% tariff on countries supporting Moscow: Graham
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Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump has approved a Russian sanctions bill designed to pressure Moscow to end its war with Ukraine.
Graham revealed the development in a post on X, describing it as a pivotal shift in the U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator Blumenthal and many others,” Graham said.
“This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent.”
TRUMP TOUTS ‘TREMENDOUS PROGRESS’ BUT SAYS HE’LL MEET PUTIN AND ZELENSKYY ‘ONLY WHEN’ PEACE DEAL IS FINAL
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol July 31, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
According to the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, the bipartisan legislation is designed to grant Trump sweeping, almost unprecedented, authority to economically isolate Russia and penalize major global economies that continue to trade with Moscow and finance its war against Ukraine.
Most notably, the bill would require the United States to impose a 500% tariff on all goods imported from any country that continues to purchase Russian oil, petroleum products or uranium. The measure would effectively squeeze Russia financially while deterring foreign governments from undermining U.S. sanctions.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine,” Graham said.
“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine.”
Graham said voting could take place as early as next week and that he is looking forward to a strong bipartisan vote.
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The vessel tanker Bella 1 was spotted in Singapore Strait after U.S. officials say the U.S. Coast Guard pursued an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela. (Hakon Rimmereid/via Reuters)
The move on the Russian sanctions bill follows another sharp escalation in America’s clampdown on Moscow. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. forces reportedly seized an oil tanker attempting to transport sanctioned Venezuelan oil to Russia.
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Graham publicly celebrated the seizure in another post on X, describing it as part of a broader winning streak of U.S. intervention aimed at Venezuela and Cuba.
In the post, he also took aim at critics such as Sen. Rand Paul, who has opposed the bill, arguing that it would damage America’s trade relations with much of the world.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Politics
ICE officer kills a Minneapolis driver in a deadly start to Trump’s latest immigration operation
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.
The 37-year-old woman was shot in front of a family member during a traffic stop in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of hundreds of angry protesters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while visiting Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
Emergency medical technicians carry a person on a stretcher at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
(Ellen Schmidt / Associated Press)
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
Frey said he had a message for ICE: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
Police tape surrounds a vehicle believed to be involved in a shooting by an ICE agent on Wednesday.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
A shooting caught on video
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It was not clear from the videos whether the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.
After the shooting, emergency medical technicians tried to administer aid to the woman.
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“She was driving away and they killed her,” said resident Lynette Reini-Grandell, who was outdoors recording video on her phone.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis driver, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Noem confirmed Wednesday that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
Protesters react after being hit with chemical spray at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis.
(Alex Kormann / Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers, chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota,” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Shootings involving drivers during immigration actions have been an issue since the raids began in Southern California.
In August, masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in San Bernardino opened fire on a truck they had stopped on a street. A video showed an agent demanding the driver roll down his window. When he refused, an agent shattered the window, the truck drove off and gunfire rang out.
When the driver got home, the family reported the incident to police. Federal authorities alleged an agent had been injured when the driver tried to “run them down.” But witnesses and video disputed some aspects of the official account.
In October, a well-known TikTok figure was shot by an agent during a standoff in Los Angeles. The U.S. attorney said the man rammed his vehicle into the law enforcement vehicles in front of and behind him, “spun the tires, spewing smoke and debris into the air, causing the car to fishtail and causing agents to worry for their safety.” But videos showed a much more complicated view of the situation. A federal judge recently dismissed the case against the driver, finding that he had been denied access to counsel while in immigration detention.
Governor calls for calm
In Minnesota on Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He said a family member of the driver was there to witness the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” He also said that, like many, he was outraged by the shooting but called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your 1st Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noise-making devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
Sullivan and Dell’Orto write for the Associated Press. Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minn. AP writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, and Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas and Times staff contributed to this report.
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The city of San Diego sued the federal government to stop the construction of razor wire fencing on city-owned land near the U.S.-Mexico border, accusing federal agencies of trespassing and causing environmental damage.
The city filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for Southern California on Monday. The complaint named Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth among the defendants.
The city accused the federal government of acting without legal authority when they entered city property in Marron Valley and began installing razor wire fencing.
“The City of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage City property,” said City Attorney Heather Ferbert in a news release. She said the lawsuit aims to protect sensitive habitats and ensure environmental commitments are upheld.
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San Diego is suing the federal government to stop the construction of razor wire fencing on city property in Marron Valley. (Justin Hamel/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File)
According to the lawsuit, federal personnel including U.S. Marines accessed the land without the city’s consent, and damaged environmentally sensitive areas protected under long-standing conservation agreements.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth were among the federal officials named in San Diego’s lawsuit. (Reuters/Brian Snyder; AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
San Diego argues the fencing has blocked the city’s ability to manage and assess its own property and could jeopardize compliance with environmental obligations.
An American flag can be seen through the barbed wire surrounding the CoreCivic Otay Mesa Detention Center on October 4, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
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The lawsuit also accuses the federal government of trespassing and beginning construction without proper authority or environmental review, and unconstitutionally taking the land in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS and the Pentagon for comment.
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