DONALD TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION: How he shook the system in his first year

Trump guaranteed his voters a dramatic reshaping of the nation’s immigration system from the first day of his campaign, denouncing Mexicans as “murderers” and “rapists” and vowing to build a southern border wall.
In the broadest of strokes, Trump is making good on his tough rhetoric. He flexed executive muscle where he could on enforcement, delivering substantial changes for immigrants and their families; refugees; and nationals of several Muslim countries.

Some results are less grandiose than he promised.
The courts stymied his efforts to rescind President Barack Obama’s deportation protection program and restrict travelers from certain countries. A broader pledge to ban all Muslims from entering the United States never materialized.
And his pledge to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it seems destined for compromise.
Trump has already managed to set a new tone. But he will have to work with Congress to create laws that leave a legacy.
Eight border wall prototypes stand on the U.S.-Mexico border in Otay Mesa, Calif., Oct. 30, 2017. Christof Büchel, a Swiss-Icelandic artist, has proposed the group of eight prototypes, which were built at a cost of $3.3 million in federal funds, be protected as a national monument.

Trump continued to move on his vision of an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” border wall. Eight prototypes are standing in San Diego, Calif., awaiting judgment from his administration about how to move forward.
But keeping this promise requires cash.
Mexico refuses to pay. Republican lawmakers are still figuring out how to cover the costs.
Trump has made some concessions on the vision already, saying it won’t span the nearly 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. It may even be “see-through,” Trump said, and “there could be some fencing.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen — who replaced John Kelly, Trump’s second White House chief of staff — affirmed in her November Senate confirmation hearing that a border wall wouldn’t run “from sea to shining sea.”
As matters stand, Trump’s promise to build a border wall rates In the Works.PROMISED ‘TRAVEL BAN’ POLICY SEES REVISIONS, COURT BATTLES

Trump early in his administration, citing national security concerns, signed an executive order to restrict the entry of all refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
What’s under enforcement now is a more tailored, country-specific directive due to lawsuits claiming constitutional violations and discrimination against Muslims. (It’s a dramatic adjustment from his December 2015 call for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims’ entry, rated Stalled.)
The Trump administration has been "tinkering with the margins to find some legal viability," Brookings’ Felbab-Brown said.
The initial order temporarily halted the entry of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen; temporarily suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and indefinitely halted the entry of Syrian refugees.
A revision in March dropped Iraq from the list of banned countries and did not single out Syrian refugees. In September, as the March order neared expiration, Trump signed a proclamation with categorized entry restrictions for individuals from Chad, Yemen, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Iran and Somalia.
The administration said the restrictions were based on foreign governments’ inability to provide information needed to vet potential entrants, and that they would be lifted once countries complied.

Refugee admission resumed under enhanced vetting, officials said.
Despite lawsuits against the proclamation, the U.S. Supreme Court in December allowed its implementation pending resolution in lower courts. For that reason, we rate his promise to suspend immigration from terror-prone places as In the Works.
Trump criticized as “unconstitutional” Obama administration programs protecting from deportation young immigrants often called “Dreamers,” and the parents of children with green cards or who were born in the United States.
His administration has rescinded both programs: Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which never went into effect due to court challenges during the Obama administration, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protected Dreamers from deportation.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION CHANGES TARGET REFUGEES, FAMILY-BASED SYSTEM
As part of his “America First” agenda, Trump promised to prioritize American workers by limiting the number of people who legally come to the United States.
One way he plans to achieve that is by admitting no more than 45,000 refugees in fiscal year 2018. That’s a significant drop from the 110,000 cap set for fiscal year 2017 by his predecessor.
Trump also supports a far-ranging Senate bill seeking a merit-based immigration system; an end to a family reunification option that allows lawful permanent residents to petition grown adult family members and extended family members; and the elimination of the diversity visa lottery that admits up to 50,000 immigrants per fiscal year.
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