Response Center

Underway

Updated:

4/2/25

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This order injects politics into the hiring, review, and retention of public servants in the "Senior Executive Service" who keep the government running for the American people.

This memo directs Trump-Vance political appointees to control various personnel affecting non-partisan senior executives. The key initiatives include requiring that performance plans are set centrally, rather than by supervisors; reassigning these senior executives without real guidance; and, having political appointees dominate the internal boards that oversee hiring and performance. The clear purpose is to harass and control those nonpartisan public servants who have the most experience delivering for Americans.

Challenged

Updated:

3/13/25

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This order seeks to severely narrow government protections and support for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary individuals.

Relying on false claims that attempt to divide communities, this order claims to change the policy of the United States to recognize only two genders (male and female), and attempts to redefine those and other terms throughout federal law to comport with this harmful worldview. It also orders the Attorney General to issue guidance to circumvent Supreme Court case law that supports transgender protections and orders several agencies to investigate people deemed to have prevented others from expressing the administration's dangerous views. This order squarely targets transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people for discrimination.

Challenged

Updated:

4/2/25

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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.

Underway

Updated:

3/13/25

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This is an omnibus border-related order that will result in more immigration detention and fewer people getting access to the U.S. asylum system.

This order contains a number of provisions — not all of which can go into effect immediately, but all of which signal that this administration will attempt to cut off access to asylum as much as possible and to detain as many immigrants as possible. The order directs the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to build the wall and send more personnel to obtain "complete operational control" of the border, a standard that has never been met and could not be met without diverting the resources of the federal government in a drastic manner. The order also instructs the Attorney General and DHS Secretary to assign additional federal personnel to enforce immigration law. As many immigrants as possible are to be detained, instead of being allowed to litigate their immigration cases from their own communities where they have access to documents, counsel, and resources that they cannot obtain in detention. The order instructs the Secretary of State to restart Remain in Mexico and to negotiate so-called "safe third country" agreements, which require the assent of other countries. This order also ends the CBP One app, a flawed phone app that nonetheless allowed asylum seekers to go to ports of entry at assigned times, ends a parole program for citizens for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV), and signals a severe decrease in the use of parole overall. The order directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) and DHS to do more DNA testing of migrants, including of families, and to prosecute more border-related offenses. Finally, this order suggests the Administration will use Title 42's public health authority to cut off access to asylum within the next two weeks.

Underway

Updated:

4/2/25

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This memorandum directs certain White House staff to be granted the highest level of security clearance without vetting.

This memo directs the White House Counsel to identify individuals in the Executive Office of the President that must be granted Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) — the highest level of security clearance — without proper vetting or background checks. The security clearances are for up to six months and the memo allows for the White House Counsel to supplement the lists or revoke any of these accesses.

Underway

Updated:

4/2/25

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This order commands all federal remote workers back to the office full-time, without regard to union agreements or disruptions it could cause.

This order directs agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and require remote workers to return to the office full-time. Only department and agency heads can grant exceptions, and there are no standards listed for those exceptions. There is also no acknowledgment of union collective bargaining agreements, which could mean that the administration intends to ignore them. This will create major hardships for remote workers, despite remote work being common outside the government, and it will make it harder for the government to provide essential services and protections.