EXPLAINER - What Trump is doing to address immigration, border security

​​​​​​​WASHINGTON

On the first day of his second term in office last month, US President Donald Trump signed executive orders to overturn the policies of the previous Biden administration.

As he promised during his presidential campaign, he has directly targeted border security as he portrays immigration as out of control.

A recent move was taken Monday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to warn those who want to enter the country illegally.

"I’m announcing a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US," Noem wrote on X, highlighting Trump's "clear message" for those who are in the US illegally.

Below are a few measures that Trump has taken in his first weeks in office to address migration and border security.

National emergency at southern border

Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern US border with Mexico that paves the way to deploy troops.

"All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came," said the president, a pledge he repeated during his campaign.

There are about 5,000 active-duty soldiers along the border with Mexico. And the number is expected to grow.

Construction of the US-Mexico border wall in the states of California and Texas has resumed, adding to the more than 400 miles of border wall built during the previous Trump administration.

Among the orders signed by Trump is ending birthright citizenship, revoking the policy that granted automatic citizenship rights for nearly anyone born on US territory.

However, several judges have already blocked that order, which was believed to be an attempt to ignore the Constitution. It is widely considered that the president does not have the power to unilaterally change the law.

Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, any person born within the territory of the US is an American citizen.

Designating drug cartels as terror organizations

Trump also signed an executive order designating drug cartels and other organizations as foreign terror organizations.

"Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the US," Trump said, which will also include members of Tren de Aragua -- a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization known for violent activities.

Colombia also agreed to take deported migrants from the US after Trump threatened tariffs.

Last month, Trump ordered the construction of a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 of the "worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people."

The White House has since begun flying undocumented immigrants -- labeled as a "high threat" and "criminals" -- to the detention center in Cuba as part of Trump’s mass deportation plan.

According to newly released data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 61,465 illegal aliens were apprehended at the southern border during January.

Signing Laken Riley Act

Last month, Trump signed the first bill of his second presidency -- the Laken Riley Act, into law.

The law mandates Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will detain illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.

It authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.

The bill is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered last year in the southern state of Georgia by an undocumented migrant.

Riley's murder drew national attention after officials said her killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, was a Venezuelan citizen who had illegally entered the country via Mexico in 2022.