The word “criminal,” as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means one who has committed a crime, a “crime” being defined as an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government.
“The criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country and who have terrorized law-abiding American citizens, absolutely, those should be the priority of ICE. But that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our nation’s borders are off the table,” remarked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a press briefing on Jan. 29, 2025. She disclosed that the White House now sees all undocumented immigrants as criminals: meaning that President Trump’s claim that he’s focusing on undocumented criminals now includes all undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the day of President Trump’s inauguration, he made multiple executive orders (EO’s) about immigration, including “Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship,” “Protecting The American People Against Invasion” and “Realigning The United States Refugee Admission Program” and signed “DHS Directive: Enforcement Actions In Or Near Protected Areas.”
The executive order “Protecting The American People Against Invasion” is President Trump’s attempt to enforce the nation’s immigration laws to the fullest extent. He has directed Homeland Security to prioritize immigration enforcement.
“The objective of each HSTF (Homeland Security Task Forces) is to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States, dismantle the cross-border human smuggling and trafficking networks, end the scourge [plague] of human smuggling and trafficking, with a particular focus on such offenses involving children, and ensure the use of all available law enforcement tools to faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States,” states the EO.
U.S. immigrants are often viewed as terrorists and violent criminals. However, according to research done by the National Crime Victimization Survey, a large share of undocumented immigrants in a county associates with less crime in an area and does not translate into higher levels of crime.
President Trump has also ordered individual Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices to detain 75 noncitizens, or ICE as a whole to detain 1,800 noncitizens every day. In comparison, ICE as a whole detained around 415 people everyday in 2023.
The executive order “Realigning The United States Refugee Admissions Program” demands that the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is suspended from allowing any refugees to enter the U.S. for 90 days, aligning with the interests of the United States because of the influx of refugees. The EO goes into effect on April 20, 2025. After 90 days have passed from that date, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State will submit a report to the President every 90 days on if refugees should be allowed back into the U.S under the USRAP: if, and only if, it serves the best interest of the United States. This will happen until President Trump decides to resume the entry of refugees under the USRAP, if he deems that it serves the best interests of the U.S.
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C 1157, section b) Determinations by President respecting number of admissions for humanitarian concerns, “If the President determines, after appropriate consultation, that (1) an unforeseen emergency refugee situation exists, (2) the admission of certain refugees in response to the emergency refugee situation is justified by grave humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest, and (3) the admission to the United States of these refugees cannot be accomplished under subsection (a), the President may fix a number of refugees to be admitted to the United States during the succeeding period (not to exceed twelve months) in response to the emergency refugee situation and such admissions shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with a determination made by the President after the appropriate consultation provided under this subsection.”
This section does not say that the President is able to fully veto the entrance of all refugees into the United States, but is only able to determine the number of refugees entering the country.
Trump’s EO “Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship” strives to terminate birthright citizenship. The executive order states that a person does not automatically receive citizenship if: “(1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
However, this order only applies to people born 30 days or more after its creation (Feb. 19, 2025). It does not apply to anyone who has received their citizenship by birthright citizenship before the executive order was made.
President Trump’s EO would seemingly go against the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Congress decided that to attain birthright citizenship the person needs to be born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” meaning that an illegal immigrant is not under the jurisdiction of the United States, therefore their child isn’t as well. The fourteenth amendment grants citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States.” But, again, Congress has taken the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” from the original amendment and interpreted it differently, taking away birthright citizenship if the parent is not a citizen.
This quick change has evoked strong emotions from people on both sides of the political spectrum.
“They seem unfair to me because there are hard-working immigrants who are paying for the mistakes of criminals. You can see how many fears, depressions and anxieties this has caused,” passionately described an anonymous naturalized citizen who has experienced firsthand the struggles immigrants go through. “I listen to what’s on the news, and it makes me feel angry and helpless knowing that today’s immigrants have it so difficult.”
“I do not have a problem with people immigrating to the U.S., but if they immigrate here, do it the legal way,” vocalized a San Antonio police officer. “We have a way in place for a reason. Once you’re here, don’t speak out against the U.S, or why did you come here?”
These are just some examples of how strongly people feel about all the changes that are coming from President Trump’s administration.
The United States is rapidly being ushered into a new era with all the new immigration laws and policies that are coming into place under the Trump administration.
President Trump has signed “DHS: Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas” overruling protections on limiting ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations on areas that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had previously deemed as sensitive.
Because of this memorandum, ICE and CBP are now allowed to conduct operations on school campuses.
Because of the shared border between Texas and Mexico, Texas has a high rate of immigrants. This causes there to be many young immigrants attending schools in the state.
For all three high schools in the Judson Independent School District (JISD), over half of the individual schools population is Hispanic and now completely exposed to ICE and CBP operations.
Campuses all around Texas are taking the steps to protect their students and their privacy with SAISD, NISD, NEISD, and SSAISD releasing statements on how they will protect their students from possible deportation raids. However, JISD has not released a statement on what they will do if an operation does take place on one of the campuses.
As the number of mass deportations increases from day to day, the levels of fear and panic amongst the migrant community are rising now more than ever. Action has to be taken. Schools should be a place where students can focus on their learning, not fear about their ability to return to their home safely. Will JISD protect their students if it comes to it? Either way, steps need to be taken to protect their students who are now at risk of deportation raids.