Response Center

This memo directs U.S. Attorneys to prioritize immigration-related offenses and threatens local officials with prosecution if they do not enforce federal immigration policies.

As an initial matter, by directing Department of Justice (DOJ) officials and federal-state taskforces to prioritize the enforcement of immigration-related offenses with this memo, DOJ is de-prioritizing and undermining the enforcement of many other laws that keep our communities safe. Additionally, this memo tries to compel, under the threat of prosecution, state and local officials to enforce federal immigration law. Such coercion undermines the ability of local and state law enforcement to prioritize what they need to in order to keep their communities safe. Taken as a whole, this DOJ memo reads as an attempt to threaten, if not prohibit, cities across America from providing sanctuary to those in this country seeking refuge.

Challenged

Updated:

9/11/25

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This order claims inherent executive authority to prevent asylum seekers and others from crossing the southern border, based on claims of an "invasion" that is not happening.

This executive order is a massive power grab by the president, who is claiming inherent constitutional authority to suspend laws passed by Congress — specifically, the entire asylum system that Congress created in 1980. Conflating immigration with an "invasion," and citing caselaw from a time before the asylum system was legislated, this order claims authority to prevent any noncitizens "engaged in the invasion" — though it is unclear who falls into that category — from entering the country. This order also claims to deny those noncitizen people the right to apply for asylum.

Challenged

Updated:

9/11/25

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This order reinstates "Schedule F" and makes it easier to fire career civil servants who provide critical services to all Americans.

By making it easier to fire career civil servants, this executive order significantly impairs our government's ability to provide essential services that millions of Americans rely on. Indeed, career civil servants are nonpartisan experts who help keep our food, medicine, transportation, and water safe; secure our public safety and our national security; deliver our mail; support our education and health care systems; and work in our court houses, our airports, our national parks, and so much more. This order could enable a political leader to replace these nonpartisan public servants with partisan ideologues.

This Notice terminates a TPS designation protecting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are lawfully present in the United States from deportation.

The Biden administration designated Venezuelans for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in 2021, and extended that designation in 2023, due to the "severe political and economic crisis" that had been occurring for years under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro. To terminate a TPS designation, the DHS Secretary must find that the conditions leading to the initial designation no longer exist. Here, Secretary Noem vacated the designation of TPS for Venezuelans without meeting that standard, and despite the fact that the State Department lists Venezuela as so dangerous that U.S. citizens should not travel there.

The President illegally fired two Democratic members of the EEOC allegedly for not "operating in a manner consistent with the objectives" of his administration.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent agency, historically led by five bipartisan commissioners, that enforces federal laws prohibiting workplace discrimination and promoting equal employment opportunities. The President fired two Democratic commissioners, claiming their leadership was not consistent with the priorities of his administration. The termination has been challenged in federal court.

This order seeks to ban transgender girls from participating on girls' sports teams and from girls' locker rooms, and discourages trans inclusion in international competitions.

This executive order seeks to ban transgender girls from girls' sports teams and locker rooms in the name of protecting girls, but it does just the opposite. These bans harm all girls, including cisgender girls, by subjecting them to increased gender policing and arbitrary and invasive investigations. This order also harms intersex and nonbinary students as it increases surveillance of their bodies. The order directs the Secretary of Education to weaponize Title IX's protections against sex discrimination and bring enforcement actions against schools that allow transgender girls to participate on girls' sports teams or use girls' locker rooms, threatening the loss of federal funding for schools that do not comply. This is despite the fact that many federal courts have held that Title IX protects transgender students, and that the Supreme Court has held that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination in an analogous civil-rights context. The order also directs the Secretary of State to rescind support for and participation in sports programs that allow trans women on women's teams, including the Olympics (which the United States is set to host in Los Angeles in 2028). And, it directs the Secretary of State to promote these discriminatory interests internationally, including at the United Nations.