Trump’s First Two Weeks: A Recap from the U.S.-Mexico Border

By MEGAN ROBINSON*

The new administration’s aggressive policies on immigration, trade, and executive power are reshaping the U.S.-Mexico border—and sparking widespread upheaval.

SUMMARY

Since Donald J. Trump took office two weeks ago to the day, we have seen the introduction of new immigration policy that puts the lives of many undocumented (and previously protected) migrants at risk, and which should concern U.S. citizens too, as far as Trump’s attempted scale up of executive powers infringes on the constitutional rights of all of us.

These last two weeks have seen a huge scaling up of efforts to conduct Trump’s mass deportation operation. Two weeks to the day Trump assumed office, on February 4, 2025, the first flights deporting migrants to be detained at Guantánamo Bay took flight from the Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas to the offshore prison facility associated with secrecy and torture. From shipping migrants to Guantánamo Bay, to the scaling up of ICE operations, to deploying military personnel to the border and the closing down of the CBP One App, we track Trump’s immigration policies from the U.S-Mexico border and from American soil over the last two weeks.

You can read the full report here, or glance our summary points below:

• Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, calling cartels a foreign “terrorist” organization, and illegal migration and the flow of fentanyl an “invasion”. Will this set the groundwork for the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and the expansion of Trump’s powers to that of a war-time president?
• Businesses at the border are under pressure. Three maquiladoras have closed in the past two weeks, and U.S. businesses that rely on supply chains in Mexico are likely to face additional burdens.
• Trump deployed 1500 military personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Trump is using tariffs in part to pressure Latin America to help the U.S. stop migrants and cartels, even though Trump inherited already historically low levels. But tariffs are unlikely to curb the flow of fentanyl.
• The CBP One app, which organized appointments for legal entry to the U.S, was shut down, leaving migrants with limited legal avenues for entry. Legal assistance programs at the border are also closed.
• Refugee Resettlement Programs that safeguard the status of many migrants already in the U.S legally, and a parole program granting Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans a work permit, have ended. Trump has, in effect, created more “illegal” immigrants through these measures.
• Migrants are being sent to Guantánamo Bay. The first flights left today.
• Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship.
• Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, says no migrant is safe, even those with no criminal record. Now, you can be arrested in schools, churches, and hospitals.
• ICE scaled up arrests all over the country, particularly in “sanctuary cities” like New York City and Chicago.
• Expedited removal has been expanded for those who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for less than two years.
• All international aid spending, except for “lifesaving measures”, were suspended for 90 days, causing an international humanitarian aid crisis. Some organizations have been pre-emptively complying despite challenges to the legality of this order.
• Trump’s policies are bringing the specter of a global recession.

*Guest writer Megan Robinson is on Instagram @megan_molleyflo