Attachments
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND: IMMIGRATION-RELATED EXECUTIVE ORDERS
In January 2025, US President Donald Trump issued ten executive orders (EOs – defined in the Terminology section below) on US immigration policy. Collectively, these EOs are expected to increase humanitarian needs for people on the move in Mexico. The main aims and effects of these EOs are outlined below.
• Effectively banning people from requesting asylum on arrival at the US-Mexico border (EO 14159) from 21 January 2025 (WOLA 24/01/2025; AIC 22/01/2025; Federal Register 20/01/2025). This EO decrees that anyone who crosses the southern border without documentation will be unable to invoke provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, including the right to claim asylum. This may also apply to other humanitarian protections against deportation covered by the act, including for unaccompanied children (AIC 22/01/2025; Govt. of US 20/01/2025 a; NPR 23/01/2025).
• Preventing the use of the Customs and Border Protection application (CBP One app) (EO 14165), the sole pathway for people to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border. The app allowed people to enter a lottery system for scheduled appointments at specific border crossings. The relevant EO also cancelled around 30,000 scheduled appointments (WOLA 24/01/2025; MSF 22/01/2025; AIC 02/06/2023; Immigration Policy Tracking Project 20/01/2025).
• Restarting the ‘Remain in Mexico’ programme (EO 14165), previously in effect from 2019– 2022, which requires non-Mexican asylum seekers to reside in Mexico while awaiting US immigration hearings (WOLA 24/01/2025; MSF 21/01/2025; Immigration Policy Tracking Project 20/01/2025). The President of Mexico has stated that the Mexican Government will receive any asylum seekers deported under ‘Remain in Mexico’ in a humanitarian manner (Govt. of Mexico 21/01/2025). As people will no longer be able to request asylum at the southern border (according to EO 14159), it is unclear how this order will be implemented (AIC 22/01/2025; WOLA 24/01/2025).
• Increasing deportations from the US (EO 14159), including by expanding ‘expedited removal’, which permits deportation with no court proceedings for people who entered the US in an irregular manner and have been present for less than two years (AIC 22/01/2025). EO 14159 also provides for the creation of the Homeland Security Task Force to oversee deportations across the US (WOLA 24/01/2025; Govt of. US 20/01/2025 b).
• Rescinding several immigration-related policies adopted by the former US administration, including the termination of the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole programme (EO 14165), which allowed 30,000 people from these countries to enter and remain in the US for two years. This policy relieved some pressure at the US-Mexico border by providing an alternative pathway to enter the US. People already in the US under this programme may be subject to expedited removal (WOLA 24/01/2025 and 07/02/2025; AIC 22/01/2025; MPI 23/01/2025). The Trump administration also rescinded EOs passed by former President Joe Biden, including: EO 14010, which expanded options for regular entry to the US; EO14011, which sought to reunify families separated when/after crossing the US-Mexico border between 2017–2021; and EO14013, which strengthened refugee resettlement programmes (JacksonLewis 23/01/2025; Federal Register 05/02/2021 a, 05/02/2021 b, and 09/02/2021).