Trump Administration's Executive-Led Immigration Enforcement and Policy Erosion

Key Quotes

"this message comes from progressive insurance progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies try it at progressive com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates potential savings will vary not available in all states hey there it's the npr politics podcast i'm ashley lopez i cover politics i'm heman abustillo and i cover immigration i'm deepa shivaram i cover the white house and today on the show we wanted to take a look back at president trump's immigration policy through his first year back in office he i mean obviously immigration was a key part of trump's uh campaign for a second term he promised to carry out in his words the largest mass deportation of immigrants in us history but like let's start there is that something he actually accomplished"

Ashley Lopez, Ximena Bustillo, and Deepa Shivaram introduce the episode's focus on President Trump's immigration policy during his first year back in office. Lopez sets the stage by recalling Trump's campaign promise of mass deportations and poses the central question of whether this was achieved. This framing establishes the analytical direction for the subsequent discussion.

"so data released from the department of homeland security this fall shows that they have um deported 605 000 people um that is short of the 1 million a year goal that trump did campaign on however the number is most definitely not nothing and to put it in context um during the first trump administration total he deported 1 5 million people so in just his first year back he has nearly reached half of that"

Ximena Bustillo provides data on the number of deportations under the Trump administration's first year back in office. Bustillo notes that while the 605,000 deportations fall short of the campaign goal of one million per year, this number is significant when compared to the 1.5 million deported during his entire first administration. This highlights the scale of enforcement efforts even if the stated goal was not met.

"the second way is the cutting off of a lot of legal pathways to come into the united states through refugee programming asylum seeking and also the delegalization of about 1 6 million people who came in during the biden administration through some program that now no longer exists and then we have seen what immigration lawyers are dubbing like major due process violations the administration has admitted that it has deported you know individuals by mistake some of them have been brought back because of that mistake um there is a broader constant clash between the courts immigration courts judicial courts and the administration in terms of this enforcement"

Ximena Bustillo describes two primary methods of immigration enforcement: a militarized approach and the restriction of legal pathways. Bustillo explains that beyond direct deportations, the administration has curtailed refugee and asylum programs and eliminated previous programs, leading to what lawyers call due process violations. Bustillo also points to ongoing conflicts between the courts and the administration regarding enforcement.

"i mean there's so many also like parts of immigration policy that i think are largely invisible to the public they're little bits of minutia that happen that you know there are these big displays that you might see on cable news right of people trying to cross the border wall or like clashes with ice like heman was talking about but there's a lot of other things that this administration has been doing often very silently and i think about things like you know increasing fees for h1b visa holders which of course limits who can come into this country um cutting off refugee admissions except for white south africans which was something trump was uh very focused on um there was even a whole bit about you know limiting the number of of student visas for chinese students in particular which then the trump administration kind of flip flopped on so there's a lot of other things that are happening in that swirl of immigration policy"

Deepa Shivaram points out that many significant immigration policy changes occur away from public view, contrasting them with more visible border enforcement actions. Shivaram highlights examples such as increased fees for H1B visas, restrictions on refugee admissions, and fluctuating policies on student visas for Chinese nationals. Shivaram suggests these less visible actions collectively represent a substantial impact on immigration policy.

"i mean this is just to be honest one of trump's favorite issues he's been talking about immigration making immigration policy one of his biggest focuses since he first ran for president like what 10 years ago now so it's one of their favorite things to talk about and lean on especially when things aren't really going well in other aspects of their policy making so if the economy isn't doing really great or the jobs report isn't really good you might see them you know trump even truthing about immigrants you know sort of that seemingly out of the blue but it's his way of of trying to pivot and reclaim the news cycle"

Deepa Shivaram explains that immigration is a favored issue for President Trump, consistently a focus since his initial presidential campaign. Shivaram suggests that the administration leans on immigration policy, particularly when other policy areas are not performing well, as a strategy to pivot and control the news cycle. This indicates immigration serves as a political tool for the administration.

"i mean this is the definition of a whole of government approach on a policy i cover dhs but i also cover immigration policy and that means i'm covering the justice department because they have purview over immigration courts where you know that determines if someone is deported or not um who is overseeing that that means the state department with many visas that means you know health and human services because they oversee the refugee program and unaccompanied minor programming that means you know usda the department of agriculture has gotten involved at one point because there are many migrant laborers that work in that sector um you know i think that there really has just been name your agency and they have probably at one point had some sort of enforcement or reaction um to what this president is doing or wants them to do"

Ximena Bustillo describes the Trump administration's immigration policy as a "whole of government approach," involving multiple federal agencies. Bustillo details how departments like Justice, State, Health and Human Services, and even Agriculture have been involved in immigration enforcement or reactions to the president's directives. This illustrates the broad reach of the administration's immigration agenda across federal bodies.

"i mean the short answer is no like there is no appetite on the hill to move a broader immigration bill forward that would reform programs that would change who can access certain visas or certain programming that would provide any pathway to a legal status that's not to say there aren't fissures i mean i've spoken with many uh republican members of the senate and the house that have disagreed with the trump administration's stance on migrant laborers on children who came on the deferred action for childhood arrivals program most recently whether or not afghan immigrants that helped us troops should be allowed to come to the united states you know we see some of these splits but then when you ask them okay congress like what's your role here what is your power they'll all concede that there's no appetite right now to move something forward"

Ashley Lopez states that there is currently no appetite in Congress