This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Janice Chen, Esq., and Taryn Druge, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.
As we predicted, the new Trump administration has launched a broad-spectrum attack on various aspects of our immigration system. As we further predicted, many, many lawsuits have been filed in response.
The purpose of this advertorial is to give our readers a broad sense of the landscape, both in terms of the Executive Orders and what the administration’s foes have done to challenge them.
Executive Action: End Birthright Citizenship
We discussed the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order in our last explainer. It isn’t going well for the administration. As we predicted, lawsuits were filed — nine of them, in various federal district courts — and, so far, the Justice Department is getting its clock cleaned. In State of Washington, et al., v. Trump, et al., a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction against the executive order, which is currently on appeal at the Ninth Circuit. Don’t expect the injunction to be lifted.
Executive Action: Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion
The Trump administration, on January 20, 2025, issued an executive order stating that, (1) the United States is currently being invaded, within the meaning of Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, and (2) that the President is therefore exercising his inherent Article II power to suspect the physical entry of all aliens involved in an invasion into the United States until further notice. On February 3, immigrant advocacy organizations sued and sought an injunction. That complaint is still pending. They’ll get their injunction, trust us.
Executive Action: ICE Enforcement in Houses of Worship
The Trump administration announced that, in a reversal of previous policy, ICE may now conduct immigration enforcement operations in locations previously considered sensitive — prominently including schools and churches.
We predict that this lawsuit will eventually fail. There is no Statutory or Constitutional right to be free from arrest or detention based on location
Executive Action: Expedited Removal Policy
The Trump administration has expanded the scope of expedited removal — which ordinarily only involves recent entrants to the United States caught near the U.S. border — to the entirety of the United States. The policy targets undocumented immigrants nationwide.
People apprehended by ICE who cannot prove that they are U.S. citizens, or that they have permission to be in the United States, or that they have been in the country continuously for at least two years, can be summarily deported. The ACLU and allied organizations have filed suit, contending that this new policy violates the Fifth Amendment, the Immigrant and Nationality Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
We predict that this suit will succeed on procedural grounds, because DHS published a Federal Register Notice purporting to create a regulation on the same day that the E.O. was announced — on January 21, 2025.
Executive Action: Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay
The Trump administration has announced that it will be ramping up operations at Guantanamo Bay, and plans to detain up to 30,000 migrants there. The administration has already began sending migrants there in small numbers.
The ACLU has sued, alleging that the Trump administration has now effectively deprived those detainees of the right to counsel, and is seeking an injunction guaranteeing, at a minimum, that lawyers will be able to contact their clients while in detention.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin has replied, in a statement to NPR, that “[i]f the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens including murderers & vicious gang members than they do about American citizens — they should change their name.” (Capitalization in original.)
We predict that this suit will succeed, and we predict that Tricia McLaughlin will be promoted.
These are just some of the Trump administration’s immigration orders! We’re working as quickly as we can to address them in print for our readers. As always, we are grateful for your questions and comments, and will do our best to respond.
