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.

This order directs the Secretary of the Interior to submit a plan for full Federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

This order directs the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate options for full Federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and create a plan to assist in that effort. The Lumbee Tribe is currently recognized by the state of North Carolina, but does not receive the funding that Federal recognition would bring. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump promised to push for recognition during their presidential campaigns.

This order reinstates a policy that prevents organizations from receiving U.S. foreign assistance funds if they provide, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in their country.

This order reinstates the expanded global gag rule that President Trump ordered during this first administration. The rule, also known as the "Mexico City" policy, blocks U.S. funding to any organizations that provide, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in their country, even if they are using non-U.S. funding to do so. The global gag rule is a dangerous policy that threatens the lives of women and pregnant people across the globe and undermines the work and speech of global health organizations.

This policy, which requires Mexico's agreement, will send asylum seekers to Mexico for months or longer to wait for their asylum hearing, where they will be at risk.

In the first Trump administration, the Remain in Mexico policy (formally called the "Migrant Protection Protocols") sent tens of thousands of asylum seekers to dangerous and inadequate conditions in Mexico to await their asylum hearings. These asylum seekers often had to wait for months in parts of Mexico the U.S. State Department classified as extremely dangerous, where many of them were kidnapped, extorted, raped, and even murdered. Because they were in Mexico, they had a much harder time locating a U.S. immigration attorney to help them prepare for their asylum hearing, and the vast majority of people subjected to Remain in Mexico did not have legal counsel for a complicated process in which their lives were often on the line. The Remain in Mexico program also gave far too much discretion to front-line Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to determine whether to apply exceptions for children, people in medical emergencies, and asylum seekers with other pressing circumstances.

This DHS policy expands a fast-track deportation process called "expedited removal" so that it applies nationwide to immigrants who have been in the country less than two years.

"Expedited removal" is a fast-track deportation process that was created via legislation in 1996. Since then, the government has applied it only at the U.S.-Mexico border and only to immigrants who entered the country recently — within the previous two weeks. The first Trump administration tried to expand expedited removal to its statutory limits — nationwide, to immigrants in the country for less than two years. Now, they are doing it again. Any immigrant anywhere in the U.S. who was not admitted or paroled into the country and who cannot affirmatively prove that they have been here more than two years will be subject to a fast-track deportation system that lacks critical due process safeguards, including for people who fear persecution in their home countries.

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.