Policies & Analysis

Challenged

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This order is another attack on diversity, equity, & inclusion initiatives in the federal government and a new attack on similar initiatives in private business & public education.

This is another anti-equity order from the Trump administration and goes further in several respects. It incorrectly claims that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives in the federal government, the private sector, and public education violate civil rights laws. It revokes several longstanding executive orders intended to address discrimination within the federal government, including one dating back to 1965, and it requires all federal contractors and grant recipients to certify that they do not operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws. In the private sector, the order directs the Attorney General to submit a report outlining a plan for misusing civil rights laws against companies that have equity initiatives, and it requires agencies to identify specific large companies, nonprofits, foundations, and associations for civil compliance investigations. The order also directs the Attorney General to work with the Secretary of Education to issue joint guidance to state and local educational agencies and higher education institutions on how to comply with federal funding requirements in light of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to hold two universities’ race-conscious admissions programs unconstitutional.

This order bans travel to the United States for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump issued an executive order banning entry for 90 days of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The order also indefinitely halted refugees from Syria, as well as barring the admission of all refugees to the United States for four months. The order also called for a review into suspending the Visa Interview Waiver Program, which allows travelers from 38 countries – including close allies – to renew travel authorizations without an in-person interview.

The Trump-Vance administration is singling out career civil servants for faithfully executing their job duties or expressing personal opinions opposed to administration priorities.

The Trump-Vance administration has made aggressive moves to fire career federal employees who disagree with his policy priorities, prioritizing loyalty to Trump over merit or experience. Career civil servants have legal protections designed to prevent this type of employment action. Employees have been punished for fulfilling ethical obligations within their job duties, as was apparently the case for two prosecutors the Department of Justice suspended over referring to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol as a "mob of rioters" in a legal document. Scores of federal employees have also been terminated for previously participating in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that are lawful, and were even encouraged under prior administrations. But these targeted firings are distinct from the administration's larger Reductions in Force.

The Trump-Vance administration, as part of its mass-deportation campaign, is pressuring countries to accept deported immigrants who have no ties to those countries.

"Third countries" are countries other than the United States or an immigrant's country of origin. When the United States removes someone to a third country, it often means deporting them to a country where they have no connections; they may not even speak the same language, and they may face threats of harm in that country. The Trump-Vance administration has rapidly escalated the use of third-country removals as part of its mass deportation campaign

Section 9 of this EO instructs DHS to expand the application of the fast-track "expedited removal" process nationwide and to include people who arrived within the past two years.

Expedited removal drastically reduces access to due process for immigrants who recently crossed the border. By statute enacted in 1996, the government may apply expedited removal to people anywhere in the country who arrived within the previous two years. However, expedited removal has been applied only near the border and only to people who entered within the previous two weeks. Expanding expedited removal to its statutory maximum reduces due process protections for many immigrants (and for anyone whom the government believes to be an immigrant), increasing the likelihood of flawed deportations of people who do not have a real opportunity to present their case.

Underway

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This memo exploits loopholes to enable hiring of an unlimited number of temporary political staff across federal agencies

Typically, there are limitations on the number of temporary political appointees that a new Administration can hire. There are exceptions, which are intended to be limited. Under this guidance, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has exploited the exceptions to allow agencies to hire an unlimited number of temporary political staffers (known as "Schedule C" positions) who can work for 120 days, with the agency able to extend for another 120 days. The guidance also allows agencies to fill up to 25% of positions at the "Senior Executive Service" (SES) level with temporary noncareer appointments not to exceed 30 days. In other words, the Administration claims it can leverage previously narrow exceptions to bring unlimited numbers of temporary political appointees into the highest levels of government.

Underway

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This order encourages agencies to put career staff on paid leave or reassign them new or vague duties, and requests a list of easily-terminated federal workers.

Under this guidance, agencies have until Friday, January 25, to provide to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a report of all employees who are subject to termination without cause (i.e., those on probationary periods and temporary appointments). Agencies are further directed to consider which of them should be retained. This guidance also encourages agencies to make broad use of administrative leave (paid time off) in connection with agency restructuring or to manage the agency’s work. The guidance also encourages agencies to reassign employees, including to an unclassified set of duties, to facilitate agency restructuring or management.

Underway

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This order creates a process to designate drug cartels or gangs as global terrorists to allow the Administration to use national security tools in immigration and border issues.

This executive order creates a process to designate certain drug cartels and criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Such designations could provide a pretext for the Administration to use sweeping national security or military authorities in Latin America, along the border, and in immigration matters – including possibly against American citizens. It could also disqualify many asylum seekers from getting asylum, since it is almost impossible for asylum seekers from Latin America to complete their dangerous journey to the United States without paying a fee to cartels.

Underway

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This order is a vague and ineffectual pronouncement that has little impact, but signals a desire to pursue an isolationist foreign policy.

This order calls for the Secretary of State to issue guidance explaining how the State Department will implement an "America First" foreign policy, and suggests that multilateralism and alliances are contrary to American interests. The order will weaken America's standing in the world. It will reduce other countries trust in the U.S., weaken relationships with our allies, and impact our ability to find common ground to solve pressing global issues, including on trade, climate change, nuclear security, and migration.

Underway

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This order reinstates President Trump's anti-environment first term policies related to oil and natural gas production, logging, mining, hunting, and fishing in Alaska.

This order rescinds all Biden regulations and policies limiting the production, transportation, and sale of oil and natural gas in Alaska and reinstates related policies from Trump's first term. It also aims to increase logging, mining, hunting, and fishing, including on federal land, while denying the creation of an indigenous sacred site in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The order does not mention the harmful environmental effects that increased drilling, road construction, and destruction of nature will cause to plants, animals, and the communities that rely on them across Alaska.

Challenged

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This order seeks to significantly weaken the government's progress on equity programs that support historically underserved communities.

This order seeks to end all equity programs in the federal government, including those that aim to create a more level playing field for communities that have experienced racial or economic discrimination, and support for historically underserved communities of all kinds. It targets all agencies, departments, personnel, expenditures, federal contractors, and grant recipients that have any equity actions, initiatives, or programs. This will harm countless people who have faced discrimination and move our government away from equity and opportunity for all.

Challenged

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This order suspends all refugee entries indefinitely, starting on Jan. 27, 2025.

Starting on Jan. 27, 2025, all refugee entries into the U.S. under the auspices of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) will be suspended indefinitely until President Trump decides to resume them. The Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) must submit a report to the president within 90 days, and then every 90 days thereafter, analyzing whether resumption of the USRAP would be in line with the priorities outlined in the order. Given how those priorities are set out, a recommendation to resume the program would be highly unlikely. Refugees can be admitted on a case-by-case basis, if the Secretaries of State and DHS jointly determine it is in the national interest and doesn't pose a threat. Finally, DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are directed to examine whether states and localities can play a larger role in determining where refugees are placed; this emboldens an anti-immigrant argument that states and localities should have essentially veto power over the placement of refugees in their communities.