President Trump delivered on his threat and used his first day in office to issue a dizzying slew of Executive Orders designed to terrify and devastate immigrants, their families, and communities across the United States. Together, these orders lay the groundwork for Trump to separate countless loved ones from their families through prolonged immigration detention and deportation, deprive essential industries of needed workers, shut the United States’ doors to refugees and people seeking asylum, target civil society and social service organizations, and create an immigration police state rife with racial profiling and cruelty.
In this explainer we provide an overview of the context and expected impact of many of the second Trump administration’s Day 1 immigration actions in three broad categories: 1) Actions subverting the rule of law that will facilitate mass deportations; 2) Actions scapegoating and targeting immigrant communities; and 3) Actions that endanger and target refugees and people seeking asylum. This list is not exhaustive as the Executive Orders are sweeping in their scope.
NILC stands ready, in partnership with communities across the nation, to defend against these harmful actions and fight for a better future.
ACTIONS SUBVERTING THE RULE OF LAW AND FACILITATING MASS DEPORTATIONS
Several of the Day 1 Executive Actions defy the Constitution and long-standing legal norms. The incoming Trump administration has, shockingly, attempted to unilaterally change the Constitution by depriving babies of their constitutionally guaranteed citizenship while announcing emergency declarations intended to provide the military with the authority to facilitate mass deportations.
Attempting to repeal birthright citizenship
Birthright citizenship provides that all individuals born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens, regardless of whether their parents are citizens. This principle dates back through centuries of common law. In the United States, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and 120 years of Supreme Court precedent upholds its application to the U.S.-born children of immigrants. The ratifiers of the 14th Amendment agreed that it would apply to children of noncitizens.
Trump’s Executive Order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” orders the federal government to deny federal documents recognizing the citizenship of children born in the United States after February 18, 2025, if the mother is undocumented or here with temporary permission, and if the father was not a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth. This will disqualify millions of children from U.S. citizenship, and will impact families composed of not only two undocumented parents, but numerous others as well, including families where both parents are here on work visas.
The only legal way to eliminate birthright citizenship is by constitutional amendment. While Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order is doomed to fail because it is illegal, it will nonetheless spread fear and chaos through the immigrant community – which is precisely his intent. Trump’s long-term goal is to create a permanent underclass of people in this country who are denied basic rights, leaving them subject to abuse, exploitation, and violence. It was wrong before the 14th Amendment was adopted at the end of the Civil War and it is wrong now.
Invoking emergency declarations to weaponize the military against immigrants
The Executive Order entitled, “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” declares a “national emergency” under the National Emergencies Act to attempt to unlock various federal national security and emergency authorities in service of President Trump’s mass deportation plan. The Executive Order contemplates calling up the reserves and national guard to assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It also authorizes the use of emergency military construction authority and transfers of funds from other Department of Defense projects to begin building more components of the “wall” at the southern border.
National emergency declarations give presidents access to enhanced authorities and resources, although the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from participating in arrests, searches or seizures. Trump used a national emergency declaration under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 in 2019 to divert Pentagon funding for the border wall.
The Order also calls for the review and revision of “use of force” policy at the border, which is especially alarming given reports that lethal force was at one point authorized against migrants at the southern border during the first Trump administration and the long history of abusive and deadly actions by Border Patrol agents.
A separate Executive Order, “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States,” assigns military planning duties to the United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) “to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
The military should never be involved in immigration enforcement, period. While the previous Trump administration used national emergency declarations to justify funding the border wall and temporarily restricting cross-border traffic flows, national emergency declarations are not intended to serve as a substitute for immigration enforcement authorities and cannot authorize the Trump administration to deploy the military to directly engage in immigration enforcement actions such as arresting and deporting migrants. Moreover, a national emergency declaration does not allow the Trump administration to skirt core constitutional rights afforded to all individuals within the United States.
While it’s too soon to tell, we should expect, at minimum, additional military support for immigration enforcement and deployments to the border, more border closings, and an attempt to divert more funding from core military and national security priorities to fund the border wall and other immigration enforcement measures. The result will almost certainly be more families separated, more migrants harmed and killed, and more disruptions to the economy from unnecessary border restrictions and closures.
Forecasting possible invocation of the Insurrection Act and Alien Enemies Act
President Trump campaigned on invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to supercharge his mass deportation plan. The Alien Enemies Act is a law from 1798 that grants the president authority to detain and deport, without due process, individuals from nations deemed “enemy aliens” when there is a declared war, invasion, or “predatory incursion” by a foreign nation or government. It is a wartime authority only used three times in U.S. history: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
The Executive Order entitled “Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” seems to contemplate invoking the AEA in relation to gangs such as Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) by requiring the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to make “operational preparations” ahead of possible invocation of the AEA. However, gangs are non-state actors, not foreign governments, and the United States is not at war with any of the countries in which these gangs operate, so the AEA cannot lawfully be invoked.
The Executive Order entitled, “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” also requires a joint report from the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security within 90 days on conditions at the southern border and a recommendation on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act, an overbroad emergency authority that would allow the Trump administration to use the military directly for immigration law enforcement purposes that would otherwise be prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act (which prohibits the military from directly engaging in law enforcement within the United States).
Invoking either the Alien Enemies Act or the Insurrection Act would be a cynical attempt to abuse wartime and national security authorities to circumvent due process requirements and facilitate mass deportations.
ACTIONS SCAPEGOATING IMMIGRANTS AND TARGETING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES FOR HARM
Grounded in a supposed “invasion” that does not exist and that invokes racist and white supremacist tropes, Trump’s Day 1 Orders make clear he is singularly dedicated to punishing immigrant families, terrorizing communities, and co-opting state and local governments to enforce immigration law and imposing sanctions on those that refuse.
Recommitting to the harmful detention of immigrants
Several of the Day 1 policies, including the Executive Order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” recommit the United States to a policy of the systemic and mass detention of immigrants. This Order specifically encourages DHS to take all possible actions to expand and use the immigration detention system. Government watchdogs, non-governmental organizations and medical experts have issued countless reports warning of the cruel and dangerous conditions in the United States’ immigration detention system. Expansion of the system is not only cruel but unnecessary, as immigrants overwhelmingly appear voluntarily for their immigration court hearings. Expansion of this already costly and deadly system will lead to widespread family separations and tragedy.
Seeking expansion of expedited removal
The Executive Order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” instructs DHS to consider actions to cement and expand the use of “expedited removal,” a process created by federal statute that allows DHS to quickly deport people without a day in court unless they express a fear of return and pass a threshold fear screening interview. Watchdogs and civil society have long documented serious deficiencies, limitations on access to counsel, and due process concerns associated with expedited removal, resulting in the wrongful deportation of asylum seekers to persecution, torture, and murder.
Currently, DHS can only apply expedited removal to people stopped by the government within 100 miles of the border and during their first 14 days in the United States. The first Trump administration attempted to expand the application of expedited removal to the entirety of the United States and all those within their first two years of arrival. A move by the administration to do so again would risk grave injustices, as expedited removals occur within CBP and ICE facilities in harmful conditions and with little to no access to counsel, exposing many to the risk of deportation without any chance of defense.
Expanding harmful local law enforcement entanglement with federal immigration enforcement
The Order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” also calls for the expansion of 287(g) agreements, which allow DHS to delegate its immigration enforcement authority to local law enforcement. There is ample evidence of the harms of 287(g) programs, including one study correlating the program with poor prenatal conditions for immigrant mothers and worse health outcomes for their children. Studies have also shown that 287(g) policies make communities less safe by discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes or participating in the legal process due to fear of immigration enforcement. An expansion of 287(g) programs will disproportionately impact communities of color and lead to illegal racial profiling and over-policing of immigrant communities by local law enforcement seeking to collude with ICE. The Trump administration’s expansion of this policy will inevitably target Black and brown communities that have long been the target of harmful police practices.
Seeking to punish sanctuary jurisdictions
Recognizing the value immigrants bring to their communities, and the disruption wrought by draconian immigration enforcement, many jurisdictions around the country have adopted sanctuary policies that prohibit state or local officials from supporting federal immigration enforcement activities unless required by law. The “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” Executive Order directs the attorney general and DHS to take civil or criminal legal action against such jurisdictions and contemplates actions to strip federal funding from their communities. This language echoes much of anti-sanctuary rhetoric during Trump’s campaign and could signal targeting of sanctuary states and cities as has already occurred in California and is rumored for Chicago and New York.
Threatening to penalize individuals and defund organizations that help immigrant communities
In addition to targeting immigrants themselves, Trump is taking aim at their families, community members, and organizations that “facilitate” the presence of immigrants by threatening civil fines and penalties. The “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” Order also directs the attorney general and DHS to review and audit federal grants and contracts with non-governmental organizations that support or provide services to undocumented immigrants. This provision is consistent with Republican efforts to target non-profit organizations serving immigrant communities, including the recent “Non-Profit Killer” bill. These provisions are intended to chill organizations, many of them faith-based service providers, from providing basic services and support to their communities.
Possible restoration or expansion of country-based travel bans
The first Trump administration’s Muslim and African bans prevented people from Muslim-majority countries from obtaining visas or refugee status in the U.S. In collaboration with partners, NILC led efforts opposing the ban in all its iterations, including the third shamefully upheld by the Supreme Court. After President Biden rescinded the ban, NILC continued to advocate for justice for those who suffered family separation and other harmful consequences.
President Trump campaigned on a Muslim ban that’s “even bigger than before and much stronger than before.” It appears that’s what we may get. The Executive Order entitled, “Protecting The United States From Foreign Terrorists And Other National Security And Public Safety Threats,” requires the secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the director of National Intelligence to submit a report within 60 days that identifies “countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)).” This ordered report appears to be an attempt to establish an administrative record the administration can use to– attempt to justify new travel bans. Once the new expanded country ban list is finalized, the Order requires DHS to take immediate steps to exclude or remove any individuals from those countries “[w]henever information is identified that would support [their] exclusion or removal….”
Categorical, country-based travel bans are an unjust and unwarranted form of collective punishment. The United States already has extremely stringent screening measures designed to identify potential threats, and this Order significantly expands those to the point where it is impossible to conclude that these travel bans are motivated by anything other than racial animus.
Separating families and endangering lives by ending parole programs
The Biden administration utilized a legal authority known as humanitarian parole to establish new lawful avenues for people fleeing violence and destabilizing conditions in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV), to enter the United States with a U.S.-based sponsor and live and work lawfully for two years. These humanitarian parole programs have been a lifeline for many forced to leave their homes in search of safety and have provided an alternative route to the often dangerous journey to the U.S. border to do so.
Trump’s “Securing our Borders” Order calls for the immediate end of these programs, explicitly including the CHNV program. More broadly, Trump’s “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” Order includes an express direction to dramatically limit the use of parole authority. The end of CHNV and other parole programs strips the U.S. government of an important mechanism for responding to the rise in international forced migration, and will leave many people who entered through these programs stranded, facing loss of status and exposure to deportation back to dangerous and potentially deadly conditions in their home countries.
Scrutinizing Temporary Protected Status designations
Federal immigration law grants the government the authority to provide individuals in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS) when conditions in their country of origin are so grave as to make return untenable. TPS is a critical protection that allows thousands of community members to participate lawfully in the workforce and support their families and community. Concerningly, the Executive Order entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” requires the incoming administration to review Temporary Protected Status and consider limitations in scope – acts that could destabilize entire communities and workfaces.
Continuing to conflate immigrants with criminality
The Executive Order entitled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” among other things, requires the attorney general to seek the death penalty for any capital offense committed by an undocumented person in the United States. This provision has nothing to do with public safety or smart sentencing. It is simply demagoguery that seeks to conflate immigrants with criminality in the very same way President Trump has done for decades.
ACTIONS THAT ENDANGER AND PUNISH REFUGEES AND PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM
A number of the Executive Orders issued on Day 1 viciously target asylum seekers and refugees. Breathtaking in scope and cruelty, together these Orders shut down the United States’ refugee resettlement program indefinitely and close the border entirely to people seeking asylum. The result will be suffering on a mass scale.
Complete and total border closure to asylum under racist “invasion” rhetoric
The final immigration-related Executive Order published on the White House website on inauguration day is shocking in its scope and brutality – literally closing the border entirely to people seeking asylum simply on the president’s word that their act of seeking safety constitutes an “invasion.” This Executive Order – entitled “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” – invokes the same provision of federal law that the Trump administration used to justify its Muslim and African bans along with the president’s constitutional authority over federal affairs to empower the Department of State to “repel, repatriate, or remove” any person arriving at the southern border on the nominal justification that the government cannot properly vet them for public health or safety risks.
This Order does not appear to provide any exceptions for people being trafficked into the United States, unaccompanied children, or those whose deportation would send them back to persecution or torture. The Order thus stands in clear violation of U.S. federal law and the United States’ obligations under the international Refugee Convention, which prevents countries from deporting refugees back to harm.
The Order quite simply names a wholesale “invasion” at the border, invoking racist tropes and inevitably meaning that children, families, and people fleeing horrific violence will be turned away. The Order is also so vaguely worded and vast in scope that we fear it could be applied to people arriving at the border with valid tourist, student or other visas, or even proof of lawful permanent residence, if a border official calls them part of the “invasion.” Like Title 42 – which constitutes a less extreme version of this Order – this policy will cause tremendous suffering and make the border more chaotic and disorderly, not less.
Systemic jailing of asylum seekers
When people arrive at the United States’ southwest border to seek asylum, the U.S. government has the discretion to process them, engage in security screenings, and release them on humanitarian parole to remain living in freedom with a loved one or community member while their asylum case proceeds. Elected officials who are hostile to asylum rights have long referred to this practice as “catch and release,” a dehumanizing term that equates people fleeing harm with fish.
The Executive Order entitled “Securing our Borders,”instructs DHS to end the practice of allowing people arriving to seek asylum to reside with their loved ones while their cases proceed, instead requiring that they be jailed for the duration of their cases. This cruel provision will subject people fleeing unimaginable harm – if they are somehow able to even enter the United States – to the fear and uncertainty of detention in substandard conditions for months or years on end. They will have little to no meaningful access to legal support for complex asylum claims. The United Nations Refugee Convention prohibits countries from punishing people for the act of seeking asylum, which is exactly what this Executive Order calls upon DHS officials to do. The systemic detention of asylum seekers also flouts the United Nations Refugee Agency’s guidelines which allow the use of detention only as a last resort.
Reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” program
The Remain in Mexico program, launched during the first Trump administration and terminated by the Biden administration, forces people arriving at the Southwest border to wait in Mexico while their case makes its way through the U.S. immigration court system. During the first Remain in Mexico, more than 2,500 people suffered violent attacks and sexual assaults at the hands of corrupt government officials or cartels while waiting in Mexico, in service of a program designed to coerce people into abandoning their asylum claims.
The Executive Order entitled “Securing our Borders” orders the reinstatement of the Remain in Mexico program. The result will be renewed and entrenched human suffering on the U.S. side of the border and strengthened cartels and organized crime that preys on migrant communities. As during the first iteration of Remain in Mexico, the U.S. government will be responsible for countless refugees forced to return to the very harm they fled rather than put themselves and their families at risk of kidnapping, murder, and assault while waiting in Mexico for an elusive chance to seek safety.
Ending the CBP One App, leaving asylum seekers stranded
The CBP One phone application has allowed asylum seekers in Mexico to register for a lottery-based appointment system to ask for asylum at a border Port of Entry. Under regulations published by the Biden administration, the CBP One app became effectively the only way to access asylum at the Southwest border. Under current rules, unless someone seeking asylum successfully secured an appointment at a port of entry through the CBP One app (or qualified for one of few extremely narrow exceptions), they were barred from qualifying for asylum.
The Executive Order entitled “Securing our Borders” calls for an end to the use of the CBP One app. Indeed, the Trump administration immediately shut down the app’s appointment registration function and, tragically, cancelled all existing appointments for those already registered on the app. These appointment cancellations could spell a death sentence for asylum seekers who waited weeks or months in Mexico to secure a coveted appointment, now left with nothing. A mother, father, and infant child who fled Cuba and waited six months in Mexico for their CBP One appointment are among the many asylum seekers the United States government has now abandoned. The CBP One app has been problematic in its application, turning asylum access into a lottery that preferenced those with greater resources. Ending it, however, effectively shuts off asylum access at the Southwest border entirely.
Suspending refugee admissions and resettlement
Trump suspended refugee admissions in his first first term, issued his first week in office through an Executive Order that included the suspension of entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries. The first Trump administration decimated the refugee resettlement system, effectively shutting U.S. doors to refugees from around the world.
The new Executive Order entitled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admission Program” suspends the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) indefinitely – “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.” The Order revokes President Biden’s Order on strengthening the USRAP, and requires a report every 90 days from the secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the secretary of State, regarding whether to resume refugee admissions. The Order does allow for case-by-case discretionary admission of refugees.
The Order also suspends the processing of refugees already in the process of seeking resettlement in the United States, leaving hundreds of thousands of refugees in limbo including nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees already cleared for resettlement, among them children waiting to reunify with their parents in the United States. We also expect the refugee resettlement infrastructure–which provides support services to newly resettled refugees–to collapse, making it very difficult to rebuild U.S. global leadership on refugee protection. The global refugee protection system has historically relied on U.S. leadership to persuade other countries to admit their fair share of the millions of refugees that require resettlement each year.
Designating gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) to undermine asylum and other legal migration
Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), a designation made by the Department of State, and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), a designation made by the Department of Treasury, are extraordinarily powerful counterterrorism determinations that are often abused in ways that compromise human rights and undermine national security.
The Executive Order entitled, “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” establishes a process by which certain cartels and other criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) are designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The Order asks the secretary of the Treasury, the attorney general, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the director of National Intelligence, to make a recommendation regarding these designations within 14 days of the order.
Federal immigration law gives DHS sweeping discretion to detain and deport people, or ban them from asylum eligibility, based on nearly any connection to an organization designated as an FTO. These laws already regularly ensnare people innocent of any wrongdoing, who were themselves the victims of organized criminal organizations. Specifically, the laws do not have exceptions for duress or for minimal contributions: they can, for example, capture a family forced to pay a tax or fine to a cartel that has control over their neighborhood. These new designations will inevitably mean DHS will wrongly deny many such victims asylum, and detain and deport them back to harm. DHS is also almost certain to use these legal designations as a way to justify separating parents from their children when they arrive at the border, as was regularly done during the first Trump administration.
FTO and SDGT designations could allow for broader criminal, civil, and financial sanctions against not just gang members, but others who are thought to provide “material support” to the gang. This standard is intentionally vague and could be used to justify attempts to target the funding and operation of organizations serving migrants that have no functional ties to gangs and cartels. FTO designations have been abused in a number of contexts, including to pursue criminal prosecutions of human rights groups engaged in legal training and educational activities.
Attempts to weaponize these and other counterterrorism and national security authorities to effectuate President Trump’s mass deportation plan are unjust and unwise. We expect thousands of people seeking asylum–and many more migrants generally–to get caught up in this dragnet approach to pursuing mass deportations. We also expect this to be a boon to gangs and cartels, which thrive off the operational chaos that comes with diverting law enforcement resources away from disrupting criminals and towards deporting migrants.
MOVING THE UNITED STATES BACKWARD
Before issuing Executive Orders outlining his own immigration agenda, President Trump rescinded a laundry list of Biden-era presidential actions. The following immigration-related rescissions stand alongside devastating rescissions that will drag the United States backward in many ways, including dismantling public health initiatives, revoking programs to mitigate climate change, and reversing the long struggles for racial equity and inclusion for women and LGBTQ+ individuals.
The immigration-related rescissions include:
- Revocation of Executive Order 13993 (entitled “Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities”): The Biden administration issued this Executive Order and subsequent guidance directing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel to prioritize the detention and removal of certain categories of immigrants, including those determined by the Biden administration to pose a public safety risk, and deprioritize enforcement actions for others. By removing any semblance of prioritization or discretion, the Trump administration is loudly announcing it intends to go after any undocumented person in the United States, regardless of how long they’ve lived in the community or how many loved ones rely upon them.
- Revocation of Executive Order 14011 (entitled “Establishment of Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families”): In the wake of the horror of the first Trump administration’s family separation policy, the Biden administration set up a task force with the goal of reunifying those children who remained separated from their parents because of the U.S. government’s actions. The taskforce reunified hundreds of families. By rescinding the Order establishing the Task Force, the Trump administration sends the terrifying signal that it will not only fail to continue pursuing reunifications, but may resume the family separation policy that made them necessary to begin with.
- Revocation of Executive Order 14010 (entitled “Creating a Comprehensive Regional Framework To Address the Causes of Migration”): The Biden administration announced an approach to immigration from North and Central America that included expanding those countries’ asylum systems and resettlement capacities, increasing opportunities for asylum seekers to apply for protection “closer to home,” and rebuilding the U.S. asylum system. Revoking the Order is part of the Trump administration’s doubling down on its prior attacks on the U.S. asylum and refugee resettlement programs.
- Revocation of Executive Order 14012 (entitled “Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans”): This Biden administration Executive Order sought to support and welcome immigrants by making government programs more accessible and reviewing harmful policies from the first Trump administration. Specifically, it sought to identify and reduce barriers to the immigration system, promote naturalization, and review the impact of Trump’s public charge rules. Rescinding this order sends a message that the new Trump administration will be hostile to supporting immigrants – even those with lawful status – and may signal reissuance of public charge rules or changes to the naturalization process.
- Revocation of Executive Order 14013 (entitled “Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration”): After the first Trump administration decimated the refugee resettlement system in the United States, the Biden administration issued this Executive Order reaffirming the United States’ commitment to refugee resettlement and calling for the program to be strengthened, including enhancements in vetting and processing. The Order also called for an inter-agency report to consider the implications of climate-related migration and options for resettlement and protection of those impacted. Its rescission lays the groundwork for the second Trump administration to once again destroy the United States’ refugee resettlement infrastructure and abandon refugees waiting abroad for years to resettle safely.
With devastating speed and breadth, the Trump administration has communicated loudly its commitment to hate and bigotry. The incoming administration is targeting immigrants, refugees and people seeking asylum for punishment and cruelty. NILC is proud to stand together with state, local and national partners, ready and prepared to defend against these attacks and hold fast to a vision of justice.
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