Trump blocks illegal aliens from welfare benefits

Pres. Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday night ordering all agencies to ensure that no federal taxpayer dollars are given to illegal aliens in the form of cash or non-cash benefits. This comes on the heels of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identifying FEMA workers who had sent taxpayer dollars to New York City to house illegal aliens in luxury hotels, despite Pres. Trump’s prior order banning such payments.

The President's executive order is a strong first step, but it simply orders agencies within the executive branch to ensure that no taxpayer benefits are given to illegal aliens in contravention of the law. It's still up to the individual agencies to make it happen. On Tuesday, Pres. Trump and Elon Musk sat down for an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, and Musk said that DOGE's role is to make sure that the agencies make Pres. Trump's executive orders a reality.

Also this week, the State Department officially designated seven international gangs—Tren de Aragua (TdA), Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Cártel del Noreste (CDN), La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), Cártel de Golfo (CDG), and Cárteles Unidos (CU)—as foreign terrorist organizations. The designation makes good on an executive order signed by Pres. Trump on his first day in office.

Yesterday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem rescinded the Biden Administration's latest extension and expansion of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians. TPS protects illegal aliens from deportation and allows them to receive a work permit. In June 2024, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended an existing TPS program for approximately 200,000 Haitians for 18 months and redesignated TPS for Haiti, which allowed approximately 321,000 additional Haitians to apply. Sec. Noem's action means Haitian TPS will expire in August, unless it is extended further.

Keep track of all of the Trump Administration's executive actions by using our Administration Accountability resource.

IAP Commentary

Memo to DOGE et al. In Re: Waste, Fraud, Abuse, and the Immigration System
Elon Musk and DOGE simply must meet the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The mission of FDNS is to combat fraud in our legal immigration system, but the Directorate has never been sufficiently empowered. DOGE is looking for low-hanging, fruitful investigations to expose government fraud, and they need to look no further than the United States immigration system.

Debunking the Obama Deporter-in-Chief Narrative
Desperate Democrats are in need of an immigration policy popular with more than the staff of the faculty lounge at Harvard. Some of the consultant class are advocating for a return to the “sensible” policies of President Barack Obama. After all, President Obama was called the “deporter-in-chief” by open-borders zealots. For those who didn’t spend the Obama term with their heads in the sand or clouds, this was never the case.

Immigration News

Trump Might Have a Case on Birthright Citizenship
While most of the media has been in lockstep in opposition to President Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and visitors, the New York Times published an op-ed countering the narrative. Law professors Randy Barnett (Georgetown) and Ilan Wurman (University of Minnesota) make the point that there are valid, unlitigated questions on applying the 14th Amendment to individuals who have broken into the country illegally. It’s a great, quick read.

Border arrests hit lowest mark since last time Trump was in office, White House says
This Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection released its monthly data breaking down its encounters with inadmissible aliens nationwide for January. It should come as no surprise that numbers are down–WAY down–even though ⅔ of January was still the Biden Administration. Anecdotal updates from Border Czar Tom Homan suggest February numbers are significantly below January, so by early March we will have a complete picture of the impact of enforcement on illegal entries. Fox News digs into the data in the article linked above, and below is our monthly chart showing nationwide encounters since FY2014.

ICE officers granted access to unaccompanied minors database
There was major good news this week for those who have followed the tragedy of child trafficking and smuggling during the last administration. NPR reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gained full access to the databases of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who are held at a different agency, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at Health and Human Services (HHS). Hopefully, this means ICE will finally be able to put a stop to the cruel practice of illegal aliens in the United States paying drug cartels to smuggle children through Mexico and into the country. Secretary Becerra’s actions as HHS Secretary under Biden to loosen sponsor vetting and process children into the interior as quickly as possible only encouraged the practice and resulted in child labor and sex trafficking.

Secretary Noem Rescinds Previous Administration's Extension of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status
Near the end of the Biden Administration, impeached Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas used gimmicks with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to give temporary work authorization and quasi-legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from Haiti and Venezuela. Secretary Noem has been working to cancel these efforts, first rescinding the redesignation of Venezuela for TPS and shortening its extension until September of this year. This week, she similarly shortened the extension of Haitian TPS.

U.S. pauses immigration applications for certain migrants welcomed under Biden
In January, the Trump Administration immediately used an executive order to announce the end of the unlawful Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela parole program (CHNV). This week, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) paused the processing of all pending immigration benefits under CHNV, the Uniting for Ukraine parole program, and another program used to bring in Colombians, Ecuadorians, Central Americans, Haitians, and Cubans. USCIS said that the three programs are being reviewed for fraud, public safety, and national security concerns.

Next Week

Both the House and Senate are in session.