Trump plans to ‘flood the zone’ with immigration executive orders. Civil rights groups are bracing for them
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Immigrants and advocates are expecting a blitz of actions that gut legal immigration pathways and swiftly reverse Biden-era policies, Alex Woodward reports. Trump is expected to swiftly announce plans to gut legal immigration pathways while reinstating policies reversed under Joe Biden and demanding members of Congress approve billions of dollars in new funding to arrest and detain people living in the country illegally, along with their citizen children.
![[Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary nominee Kristi Noem could oversee a sprawling cabinet-level agency overseeing immigration authorities]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/23/2025-01-17T201035Z_1106368691_RC2QBCAFVO0R_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-NOEM.jpg)
Following his inauguration on January 20, Trump is widely expected to “flood the zone with anti-immigration actions,” according to Naureen Shah, deputy director for government affairs at ACLU. Advocacy groups anticipate a combination of “executive orders, agency actions and requests to Congress for funding and immigration bills to enlarge its authority” and “intimidate all elected officials across the country into going along with his mass deportation agenda,” Shah told reporters Friday.
![[Trump’s ‘border czar’ Tom Homan, center, is expected to implement the president-elect’s ‘mass deportation operation’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/23/1fdd6a5cd4a9491da1544505b2a24199.jpg)
Trump is expected to expand the use of 287(g) agreements under the Immigration and Nationality Act and boost funding for the program, which effectively deputizes local law enforcement to work with federal agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. His administration is expected to compel state and local governments to embrace his plans by threatening to withhold federal funding — an attempt to “hold communities hostage” that will “embolden him to do it again and again” when it comes to legal battles over local policies on LGBT+ rights and other hot-button issues, Shah said.
