President Trump and Migration Policy

Abstract

The US is home to a fifth of the world’s 260 million immigrants; butabout one in four of the 48 million foreign-born residents in the US isunauthorized (UN DESA, 2017; Passel & Cohn, 2018).1 Candidate DonaldTrump promised to stop the entry of unauthorized foreigners by buildinga wall on the Mexico-US border and deporting the unauthorizedimmigrants in the US. After taking office in January 2017, President Trumpissued executive orders that ordered planning to build the wall, moreagents to detect and deport unauthorized foreigners, and restrictionson the entry of Muslims from countries deemed uncooperative in thefight against terrorism. Congress has rejected many of Trump’s proposals,and the courts have slowed the implemenation of some Trump policies,highlighting the limits of a nationalist and populist approach to managingmigration.