The use of executive action, old-fashioned laws, and advertising campaigns employ a carrot and stick approach to eliminate millions of illegal immigrants.
As the Trump administration intensifies the pressure for them to leave, self-depaulettes may become illegally more attractive to the nation’s people.
On his first day in office, January 20th, President Donald Trump signed 10 border-related enforcement actions to secure borders and block illegal immigration while planning mass expulsions.
One executive order, entitled “Protecting Americans from Aggression,” began moving to change federal rules that would help manage the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who entered the country under the Biden administration.
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The Alien Registration Act of 1940, also known as the Smith Act, generally requires all foreigners who will stay in the country for more than 30 days to apply for registration and fingerprints, but it is not always in force.
The registration requirements for DHS require that you complete the registration requirements for age 14 or older if you did not do so in the past. Once registered and fingerprinted, DHS will issue evidence of registration. This is “must always have a personal ownership of foreigners over the age of 18.”
Parents must register children under the age of 14 and re-register when they turn 14.
A federal judge on April 10 determined that the Trump administration could advance the requirement that everyone in the United States must illegally register with the federal government and publish documents.
Judge Trevor Neil McFadden, appointed by Trump, ruled in the administration’s favor, arguing that his lawyers were enforcing requirements that already exist for everyone in a country where they are not American citizens. McFadden’s ruling did not address the issue. Instead, the judge ruled that the immigrant rights groups pushing to halt the requirements had no position to pursue their claims.
Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Guard and Immigration Centre, said the new rules will help the government record millions of migrants who have entered the country illegally over the past four years.
“If you think about it, we don’t know who’s here,” she told The Epoch Times.. “So, ‘Oh, by the way, it reminds me of the requirements of this registry. If you don’t follow it, it will deport you.”
Immigrants show one CBP app from the US Customs and Border Protection Agency in Chihuahua, Mexico on May 10, 2023. The app is being done. Rebranding AS CBP Home. Gilles Clarenne/AFP via Getty Images
“So they’re notifying us,” Reese said. “If they continue to stay, they will get a fine.”
Early on, the administration used the carrot and stick approach to self-reporting, due to the limited resources of the government.
“If you are here illegally, we will find you and expel you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have the opportunity to enjoy our freedom and live our American dreams,” she says in the video.
Another example is the transformation of the CBP One app, which allowed immigrants to make appointments seeking asylum during the Biden administration.
Under Trump, DHS flipped the script. The app has been rebranded as a CBP home and now illegal immigrants encourage self-promotion.
“The apps are very smart,” said Joshua Trevigno, a senior fellow at the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the American First Policy Institute and a policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Trevinho said during the Epoch era that the Trump administration was using a government-wide approach to seize borders, robbing borders and deporting illegal immigrants.
“The Trump administration understands that the crisis, illegal migration and illegal presence in the United States really need an entire ecosystem of tolerance to create it,” he said.
Bahochiquito is located on the banks of Riotsuksa, in Darien Gap, Panama on February 18th, 2024. The immigrants enter Darien from Colombia and cross the mountains on a 3-4 day journey. Courtesy of Bobby Sanchez
Trevinho, a frequent traveller to Latin America, said the country appears to have received a message about Trump’s border policy. They appear to be trying to reduce illegal immigration and human trafficking, he said.
“I’ve been in Central and South America in the last two weeks, and I can directly convey that I have a real understanding and a real sense of being a new day with the US government,” he said.
Old laws have been revived
The 1996 Law and the Immigration and Nationality Act is not the only law revived by the Trump administration.
On the campaign trail, Trump “promised to summon the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 to target and dismantle all immigrant criminal networks operating in American soil.
Alien enemy laws can be used to stop “qualified or predatory invasions of US territory by qualified actors.”
Last month, the Trump administration cited the law as the basis for removing about half of the 238 Tren de Aragua gang members and 21 MS-13 gang members at El Salvador’s terrorist confinement center known as CECOT.
The deportation was documented by El Salvador. El Salvador has released a video showing prisoners being led by the army from planes, loaded into buses and military-style vehicles and whipped into prisons.
US District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the two planes to return to the United States by illegal immigrant gang members back to El Salvador and Honduras.
Boasberg verbally ordered the plane to turn around, but did not include his written order.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court held on April 7 that for now, the Trump administration could use the law to continue deporting gang members and overturning a lower court’s ruling.
The Salvadoran Gards escorts claimed members of the Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang who were recently deported by the US government to be imprisoned at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecolca, El Salvador on March 31, 2025. President’s Press Secretary/Distributed Materials via Reuters
Babies and citizenship
One of the most controversial executive orders issued by Trump involves birthright citizenship, a legal concept that has not seen any significant court challenges in 200 years.
According to the 14th Amendment, “All people born or naturalized in the United States are subject to their jurisdiction and are citizens of the United States and the state in which they live.”
Trump has his arguments about the qualifying portion of the amendment “is subject to that jurisdiction.”
Many countries rely on “jus sanguinis” or “blood rights.” In contrast, countries such as the United States, Mexico and Canada have moved to the “jus solid” model, the rights of the soil or birth country, according to King, a lawyer and fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston.
The rights of soil are rooted in the feudal notion of loyalty to the landlord of origin. King wrote that it is based on citizenship based on the nationality of the children’s parents and traces its origins to Roman law.
King said that “the subject of that jurisdiction” was clearly intended to limit the granting of citizenship based on place of birth in any way.
However, the phrase was inaccurate.
In debate over 14th Amendment adoption, he wrote that Flamer mentioned the elimination of children born to Indian tribes, foreign diplomats, or temporary resident foreign soldiers.
