Topic: Illegal Immigration
“Illegal immigration should be ended, not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritized. Economic engagement with China should be ended, not rethought.”
The effect of “mass deportations” would be economic devastation. By one calculation, deporting 1 million immigrants would lead to 88,000 additional employment losses by other Americans, suggesting that Trump’s program could cost up to 968,000 Americans their jobs on top of the 7.1 million jobs held by immigrants up for deportation.” [Source]
Full contextual analysis of the foreword here.
“…incoming policy councils will need to move rapidly to lead policy processes around cross-cutting agency topics, including countering China, enforcing immigration laws, reversing regulatory policies in order to promote energy production, combating the Left’s aggressive attacks on life and religious liberty, and confronting “wokeism” throughout the federal government.”
Full contextual analysis of Section 1.1: White House Office here.
- Reestablish a culture of command accountability, nonpoliticization, and warfighting focus.
- Transform our armed forces for maximum effectiveness in an era of great-power competition.
- Provide necessary support to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) border protection operations. Border protection is a national security issue that requires sustained attention and effort by all elements of the executive branch.
- Demand financial transparency and accountability.
These are Miller’s four main priorities for the military as a whole going forward. You’re not crazy – that third one is federally sanctioning using the United States Military to patrol the border.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.1: Department of Defense here.
“The Secretary should direct FEMA to ensure that all FEMA-issued grant funding for states, localities, and private organizations is going to recipients who are lawful actors, can demonstrate that they are in compliance with federal law, and can show that their mission and actions support the broader homeland security mission.”
That’s a recommendation that the federal government deny disaster aid to states that don’t support their regime (in this case, blue states.) There’s not another way to see that statement. It gets freakier. One of the compliance requirements he suggests is, “If the applicant is a state or locality, commitment by that state or locality to total information-sharing in the context of both federal law enforcement and immigration enforcement. This would include access to department of motor vehicles and voter registration databases.” (Project 2025, Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, page 170, paragraph 2.) Read that last part again. Access to the department of motor vehicles and voter registration databases.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.
“CBP should restart and expand use of the horseback-mounted Border Patrol. As part of this announcement, the Secretary should clear the records and personnel files of those who were falsely accused by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of whipping migrants and issue a formal apology on behalf of DHS and CBP.”
Fact check: There’s no evidence suggesting that horse-mounted border control efforts were halted because of the Del Rio incident, despite spurious headlines to the contrary.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.
“Direct ICE to stop ignoring criminal aliens identified through the 287(g) program.”
ICE doesn’t “ignore” criminals identified by the 287(g) program, which is a collaboration between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and state and local law enforcement agencies that allows local officials to act as immigration agents. They DO prioritize removing individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety, based on factors like the severity of their crimes. Moreover, the 287(g) program itself is a civil liberties nightmare with well-documented abuses.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.
“Mandatory appropriation for border wall system infrastructure.”
This is costly performative nonsense. First of all, it’s pointless to have a wall if you’re not going to man it, since ladders and shovels are things that exist, and second, if you’re going to man the border, you don’t need a wall – borders can be more efficiently manned with technology and numbers than with physical barriers. At least he’s not claiming erroneously that Mexico will pay for it. Put simply, walls don’t work. View our Bite-Sized Brief about that here.
Moreover, “mandatory appropriation” is deliberately vague and quite likely would encompass forced government seizure of private lands in support of building a wall. If it’s “mandatory”, I’m guessing that they’re going to roundly ignore the Eminent Domain requirement that the landowner must be justly compensated, but the author (perhaps purposely) does not specify this.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security and support for my above claim here.
“Congress should amend the Homeland Security Act and portions of the TVPRA to move detention of alien children expressly from the Department of Health and Human Services to DHS.”
There would be no reason to move the responsibility for detained immigrant children to the Department of Homeland Security from Health and Human Services other than cruelty. Currently, HHS manages programs specifically designed to meet the needs of children. Removing these in favor of leaving them in the care of an agency whose primary directive is law enforcement, would lead to neglect and lack of care.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security and support for my above claim here.
“[The Department of Defense will] Assist in aggressively building the border wall system on America’s southern border. Additionally, explicitly acknowledge and adjust personnel and priorities to participate actively in the defense of America’s borders, including using military personnel and hardware to prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry and channel all cross-border traffic to legal ports of entry.”
This is another argument for militarizing the border, which Christopher Miller argues for this as well in Section 2.1, and I talk more about the implications there.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.
“Deny loan access to those who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, and deny loan access to students at schools that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens.”
Under existing U.S. law, federal student loans are generally only available to U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens, which typically includes lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and certain other categories of non-citizens, such as refugees and those granted asylum. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal student loans.
Almost half of all states allow undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. These policies are often based on the student meeting certain criteria, such as attending and graduating from a high school in the state. But again, they’re not qualifying these students for federal student loans, just offering them in-state tuition rates. Those students must find some other way of paying for college.
Denying access to federal student loans to students at schools with these policies is unnecessarily punitive to ordinary students of those schools who are U.S. citizens.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.