Trump’s Latest Actions on Immigration: Immigrant Detention Facility in Guantánamo Bay, Combating Anti-Semitism on College Campuses, and the Laken Riley Act

american-flag-2054414_1280This week President Trump unleashed a fresh barrage of executive orders targeting illegal immigration and antisemitism in the United States.

Executive Order Expanding Migration Operations at Guantánamo Bay


Among these orders, on January 29th the President signed, “Expanding Migration Operations Center at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay,” unveiling his administration’s plans to use a migrant holding facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to house more than 30,000 migrants deported from the United States.

The White House has said the naval station will soon be operating at its full capacity to detain “high priority” criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to “address attendant immigration enforcement needs,” identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration advocates have questioned the optics of this decision due to Guantánamo Bay’s sordid history. Once a processing center for asylum seekers and HIV-positive refugees, it has been well known for its detainment of notorious terrorists and unlawful enemy combatants such as the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. This decision has raised alarm due to Guantanamo’s unfit conditions and frequent human rights violations reported to international human rights organizations.

Despite these criticisms, the White House has said that deported migrants held in Guantánamo will not be detained in the same U.S. military prison where foreign terrorists are being held. Instead, migrants will be placed in a separate holding facility previously used to detain migrants intercepted at sea.

During a televised interview with Fox News, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth provided more details, revealing that migrants detained in Guantánamo will not be held there indefinitely. Instead, the facility will be a temporary “waystation,” holding migrants while repatriation flights are coordinated to return them to their countries of origin.

Hegseth added, “This is not the camps. You’re not putting criminals in camps where ISIS and other criminals [are]. This is a temporary transit … where we can plus-up thousands and tens of thousands, if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country, where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from in a proper process.”

Little is known about the condition of Guantánamo’s detention facility, although it appears the administration is considering the construction of additional housing to provide enough space for the 30,000 aliens expected to be housed there.


Executive Order Combating Anti-Semitism on School Campuses


The President’s second executive order seeks to combat antisemitism in American schools and universities in response to a rise in protests to the Israel-Hamas war among student populations.

The order condemns antisemitic attacks on Jewish students who, “have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination, denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms, and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault.”

To combat this rise in antisemitism, the U.S. has made it a matter of policy to “vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

This includes taking the following actions:

  • Within 60 days, the heads of each executive department or agency (agency) must report to the President, all civil and criminal authorities or actions…that might be used to curb or combat anti-Semitism
    • This report will include an inventory and analysis of all pending administrative complaints, and court cases, as of the date of the report, against or involving institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism.
  • The Attorney General must indicate whether he intends to or has taken any action with respect to such matters, including filing statements of interest or intervention.
  • The Attorney General is encouraged to employ appropriate civil-rights enforcement authorities, such as 18 U.S.C. 241, to combat anti-Semitism.
  • The report submitted by the Secretary of Education under this section must include an inventory and an analysis of all Title VI complaints and administrative actions, including in K-12 education, related to anti-Semitism — pending or resolved after October 7, 2023 — within the Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
  • In addition to identifying relevant authorities to curb or combat anti-Semitism, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with each other, must include in their reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) so that such institutions may monitor and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.

As a result, international students with F-1 visas participating in pro-Palestinian protests, and/or found to be engaging in antisemitic conduct could be reported by academic institutions of higher education, and where appropriate, and consistent with the law, investigated and subject to removal from the United States.

The executive order does not concretely define “unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence,” nor does it provide further details about how the order will be enforced against student aliens by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). First amendment rights which protect freedom of speech and expression may soon lead to legal challenges in federal court.


Laken Riley Act


In his first major victory since taking office, President Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law after its approval in the House and the Senate.

The Laken Riley Act is named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a Venezuelan man without legal status, who had been previously charged with shoplifting in the state of New York. Lawmakers argued that his deportation would have prevented Laken’s murder.

In honor of Laken Riley, the legislation mandates the federal detention and removal of illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, shoplifting, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.

This means that a mere arrest and/or criminal charges for crimes like shoplifting can now lead to federal detention and removal from the United States for those without legal status in the United States.

The legislation also allows attorneys general to sue the federal government for harm caused to states and local communities stemming from failures in immigration enforcement, such as releasing migrants from custody or failing to detain migrants who have received deportation orders.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has said, “This law restores commonsense to our broken immigration system. Under President Trump, violent criminals and vicious gang members will no longer be released into American communities.”

The law has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers who point to research suggesting immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. Citizens. Despite this, the government has sent a clear message that immigrants without legal status must be otherwise law abiding or face the consequences.

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