By Kar­la Perez
UConn Jour­nal­ism

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump signed more than two dozen exec­u­tive orders on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in the White House. Eight of them cen­tered on immi­gra­tion. With­in these orders, Trump repeat­ed inten­tions from his first term to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico bor­der, but he also took broad aim at who can enter the coun­try by halt­ing refugee admis­sion and who can be an Amer­i­can by lim­it­ing birthright cit­i­zen­ship.  

One exec­u­tive order said that Trump may decide to invoke the Alien Ene­mies Act of 1798 on inter­na­tion­al car­tels and orga­ni­za­tions des­ig­nat­ed as For­eign Ter­ror­ist Orga­ni­za­tions, which would allow him to detain and deport cit­i­zens of ene­my coun­tries. In March, he invoked the act on Venezue­lan orga­ni­za­tion Tren de Aru­ga, sub­ject­ing Venezue­lans 14 years old and old­er to be “appre­hend­ed, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Ene­mies.” Anoth­er Trump order pledged to pur­sue the death penal­ty for every cap­i­tal crime com­mit­ted by an undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grant.

Click on the box­es below to learn more about each exec­u­tive order.

Exec­u­tive Order 14156
“Secur­ing our Bor­ders” 

Exec­u­tive Order 14160
“Pro­tect­ing the Mean­ing and Val­ue of Amer­i­can Cit­i­zen­ship”

Exec­u­tive Order 14163
“Realign­ing the Unit­ed States Refugee Admis­sions Pro­gram” 

Exec­u­tive Order 14159
“Pro­tect­ing the Amer­i­can Peo­ple Against Inva­sion”

Exec­u­tive Order 14161
“Pro­tect­ing the Unit­ed States from For­eign Ter­ror­ists and Oth­er Nation­al Secu­ri­ty and Pub­lic Safe­ty Threats” 

Exec­u­tive Order 14167
“Clar­i­fy­ing the Military’s Role in Pro­tect­ing the Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Integri­ty of the Unit­ed States”