President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive actions, revoking 78 of Joe Biden’s policies, hours after returning to the White House.
The executive actions are the culmination of multiple campaign pledges and the resurfacing of policy ideas that didn’t come to fruition during Trump’s first term.
Trump rescinded 78 Biden-era executive actions, including an executive order that required federal agencies to extend prohibitions on sex discrimination; an order that required executive branch appointees to sign an ethics pledge; an order that allowed transgender people to serve in the military; and an order that banned the renewal of private prison contracts.
The 47th US President also ordered a crackdown on immigration.
Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border, triggering the use of Pentagon resources and personnel that will be deployed and used to build the border wall.
His administration also ended use of an app that allows migrants to notify US Customs and Border Protection that they intend to enter the United States. Trump also signed an order that sought to redefine birthright citizenship.
Trump announced that he is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. His order says the WHO “continues to demand unfairly onerous payments” from the US.
Trump signed an action enacting a hiring freeze for federal government employees through the executive branch. Trump also formally established the new Department of Government Efficiency as an entity within the federal government in an executive action.
Trump took executive action on the names of US landmarks – including renaming Denali and the Gulf of Mexico – a move that his White House said will “honor American greatness.”
Trump signed an action withdrawing the US again from the Paris climate accord, a global emission-lowering agreement.
Also, Trump pardoned about 1,500 people charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and commuted the sentences of leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Moreover, He signed an executive action that delayed enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days. The law gives the President broad discretion on how to enforce the ban on the Chinese-owned video app.
Trump Administration Sued Over Day 1 Effort To End Birthright Citizenship
Meanwhile, a coalition of civil rights and immigration rights groups sued the Trump administration over an executive order signed hours earlier by President Donald Trump that seeks to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
The lawsuit tees up what is expected to be a lengthy and unprecedented legal fight over the issue, which is a central pillar of Trump’s immigration agenda.
Brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, various state ACLU chapters and several other groups on behalf of immigration groups with members who are impacted by Trump’s order, the 17-page suit argues that Trump’s action violates both federal law and the US Constitution.
Attorneys for the groups wrote in the suit, “For Plaintiffs — organizations with members impacted by the Order — and for families across the country, this Order seeks to strip from their children the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship, … threatening them with a lifetime of exclusion from society and fear of deportation from the only country they have ever known.” They added, “But that is illegal. The Constitution and Congress — not President Trump — dictate who is entitled to full membership in American society.”
The groups are asking a federal court in New Hampshire to declare Trump’s order unlawful and to temporarily and permanently block it.
The order signed earlier by Trump says that the federal government will not “issue documents recognizing United States citizenship” to any children born on American soil to parents who were in the country unlawfully or were in the states lawfully but temporarily.
The order said that it would “apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.”
The lawsuit said that some of the immigration groups’ members “are currently expecting children who may be deemed to be covered by the Order.”
The executive order, the groups’ Attorneys wrote, “may also render children legally or effectively stateless.”
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