By Albert Sun and Miriam Jordan
Since taking office, the Trump administration has implemented rapid, significant changes to United States immigration policy. It has taken a much more expansive view on who should be targeted for arrest or deportation and how the laws governing immigration can be interpreted.
The Biden administration focused its immigration enforcement efforts primarily on people crossing the border. By contrast, the authorities are now increasing enforcement against the millions of people already in the country with no legal status or with only temporary permission — as well as legal permanent residents, known as green-card holders, and other foreigners lawfully in the country on student and other visas.
It has long been the case that green-card holders or others with a valid visa who commit certain crimes can have their status revoked and can be deported. Recently, however, green-card holders convicted of minor crimes many years ago who previously were not targets have been detained, and the Trump administration is seeking to deport them.
In the past, foreign students could lose their status and be deported if they committed certain crimes or violated the terms of their visas, which typically require that they remain full-time students. Recently, international students, workers, and green-card holders who have not been accused of any crime or a specific violation of their visas have also been arrested by immigration agents, and the administration is seeking to deport them — mostly, it seems, for their political activism related to the Gaza conflict. Many of these cases are being challenged in the courts.
United States citizens cannot be deported, even though it sometimes happens by accident, and the first Trump administration expanded attempts to “denaturalize” or strip people of citizenship they had previously obtained. It is unclear to what extent the current administration is pursuing denaturalization.
Typically, people must have received an order of removal from an immigration judge before they are deported; though, since the start of 2024, 70 percent of these removal orders were issued to someone who did not attend their hearing before the judge, according to a New York Times analysis of court records.
Recently, however, the Trump administration has expanded the use of expedited removal, allowing agents to swiftly deport people who have been in the country for less than two years without giving them a court hearing. The administration has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely used law that grants the president authority to deport “alien enemies” with no due process in cases of war or invasion.
Both of these efforts are being disputed in the courts. On Monday, the Supreme Court decided that the government could proceed with deportations under the Alien Enemies Act but that they must provide notice to those they were seeking to deport to give them an opportunity to challenge the deportation in court.
Unlike in criminal proceedings, the government does not provide a lawyer to represent immigrants in deportation proceedings. Immigrants must find and pay for a lawyer on their own. In 2024, just 32 percent of people were represented by a lawyer in their immigration cases, according to a Times analysis.
Under a law combating human trafficking, the government has provided funding to nonprofit groups that provide lawyers for children who have crossed the border alone. The Trump administration has attempted to cut off that funding, but that decision is being challenged in court. A judge has ordered the funds to be at least temporarily restored.
In at least one case, the Trump administration has admitted to — without due process — mistakenly deporting a man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was in the United States legally, because of what it called an “administrative error.” He is imprisoned in El Salvador, where he was sent with other migrants accused of being gang members. A federal court ordered the Trump administration to return Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United States, but Trump administration officials said there was nothing they could do to correct the error. The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the lower court’s order while it hears the case.
The government has long had broad discretion to question and search noncitizens before admitting them into the country. Under the Trump administration, immigration officers have been more aggressively screening and denying entry to foreigners arriving at airports, even when they present valid visas. This happened infrequently in the past.
Officers at ports of entry are also allowed to search people’s possessions, including their phones, to examine their social media accounts for suspected criminal activity — that applies to citizens, too. Officers have recently been rejecting noncitizens whose posts suggested criticism of the United States or Israel but not necessarily criminal activity. Recent reports of foreigners denied entry or detained while attempting to enter the United States have prompted some countries to issue travel advisories.
Little has changed, at least so far, about the public benefits and programs immigrants are eligible for, which can vary by state. Green-card holders must wait five years before they are eligible for Medicaid. Unauthorized immigrants are eligible for a driver’s license in 19 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico