What does Trump's Agenda47 say about immigration policy? Here's what to know.
Shortly after winning the election, Donald Trump began stacking his administration with conservative hardliner poised to potentially take over his immigration agenda.
He created the "border czar" position to oversee immigration policy and named former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan to the position. Shortly after, he named Stephen Miller, his longtime immigration adviser, as the deputy chief of staff for policy ahead of other key Cabinet nominations.
While Trump has long promised measures to curb immigration, like his "build the wall" slogan of 2016, some experts have suggested that his promise to carry out "mass deportation" of undocumented immigrants could be more feasible with stacked courts and administrators backing him in this presidency.
But the widespread deportations haven't been his only promise throughout his campaign. Here are some other measures Trump has signaled through his Agenda47 policy plan and Core 20 promises:
Immigration: Trump's second presidency sparks fear of 'scary' time ahead among some immigrants
What does Agenda47 say about immigration?
Trump's Agenda47 post from May 2023 states that, on Day One of his presidency, he would sign an executive order to prevent federal agencies from granting automatic U.S. citizenship to the children of immigrants who came to the country illegally.
The order would push federal agencies to "require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children to become automatic U.S. citizens," the policy plan says.
Under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, anyone born in the U.S. is a U.S. citizen, with limited exceptions. The American Immigration Council points out that birthright citizenship for foreigners has been affirmed by the Supreme Court despite being challenged many times. Libertarian think tank Cato Institute called ending guaranteed birthright citizenship an "unorthodox view" not supported by the vast majority of constitutional lawyers.
Agenda47 seeks to curb immigrants who come to the U.S. to give birth for citizenship status
Trump's Agenda47 post from May 2023 states his Day One executive order would also seek to end what he calls "birth tourism," or the action of immigrating to the U.S. to have a child who would automatically become a U.S. citizen.
In 2020, Trump issued new visa guidelines to try to curb "birth tourism," without providing evidence it is a growing problem.
Using a tourist visa, an immigrant could come to the country and later legally have a child.
What '20 Core Promises' said about immigration
Among his "20 Core Promises to Make America Great Again," part of the RNC platform, Trump also promised to "seal the border and stop the migrant invasion."
Border encounters dropped 75% in September from the year prior, in part because of Mexico, which benefits economically from a chaos-free border with its major trading partner, USA TODAY previously reported. Still, Trump threatened to impose a tariff on all Mexican imports if it doesn't help curb the flow of people coming to the border.
Many presidents have tried to seal the border, but none have been successful. Approximately 654 miles of the 1,954-mile long border with Mexico have some sort of barrier.
Trump agenda ties immigrants to crime
Throughout his campaign, Trump frequently told rally-goers about violent crimes supposedly committed by immigrants. He has pointed to the murder of Laken Riley, a nursing student who was murdered earlier this year, and a Venezuelan migrant was charged with her murder. In the final weeks of the campaign, Trump's rhetoric got darker, as he painted migrants as murderers who could “walk into your kitchen" and "cut your throat."
"Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders," states one of the Trump platform's 20 promises.
Some research shows immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S., according to an analysis of Texas Department of Public Safety data by the Cato Institute. Violent crime appears to be falling back to pre-pandemic levels.
The RNC platform on immigration also includes strict vetting, stopping "sanctuary cities" and enforcing immigration laws, the campaign previously told USA TODAY.
On Nov. 7, a federal grand jury indicted a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who the Justice Department says was heavily involved in manufacturing cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and marijuana and importing it into the U.S.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Lauren Villagran, Brad Sylvester, Terry Collins, Doug Stanglin, Deirdre Shesgreen, Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, David Jackson
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected], and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's Agenda47 plan on immigration policy: Here's what to know