Securing Our Borders
Signed January 20, 2025·Donald Trump·90 FR 8467
Source
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Plain-language summary
Directs multiple federal agencies to secure the southern border of the United States. The Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security must construct physical barriers and deploy sufficient personnel to gain operational control of the border, while the Attorney General and Homeland Security add personnel using specified immigration-law authorities. The Secretary of Homeland Security must expand detention of apprehended aliens, end "catch-and-release" practices, resume the Migrant Protection Protocols in coordination with the State Department and Justice Department, stop using the "CBP One" app for parole, and terminate categorical parole programs including one for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants. The State Department must pursue international cooperation agreements. The Attorney General and Homeland Security must fulfill DNA identification requirements for detained aliens, verify claimed family relationships, and prioritize prosecuting border-related crimes such as human and child trafficking. Within 14 days, the State, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security Departments must recommend further actions to the President to protect against foreign threats and secure the border.
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Claimed authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered
Quoted from the order as written. Many orders cite nothing more specific than “the Constitution and the laws”; this reproduces what the order claims, not an assessment of whether it holds.
The order, in full
Executive Order 14165 of January 20, 2025
Securing Our Borders
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act
(INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title
3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. Over the last 4 years, the United
States has endured a large-scale invasion at an
unprecedented level. Millions of illegal aliens from
nations and regions all around the world successfully
entered the United States where they are now residing,
including potential terrorists, foreign spies, members
of cartels, gangs, and violent transnational criminal
organizations, and other hostile actors with malicious
intent.
Deadly narcotics and other illicit materials have
flowed across the border while agents and officers
spend their limited resources processing illegal aliens
for release into the United States. These catch-and-
release policies undermine the rule of law and our
sovereignty, create substantial risks to public safety
and security, and divert critical resources away from
stopping the entry of contraband and fugitives into the
United States.
We have limited information on the precise whereabouts
of a great number of these illegal aliens who have
entered the United States over the last 4 years.
This cannot stand. A nation without borders is not a
nation, and the Federal Government must act with
urgency and strength to end the threats posed by an
unsecured border.
One of my most important obligations is to protect the
American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful
mass migration and resettlement.
My Administration will marshal all available resources
and authorities to stop this unprecedented flood of
illegal aliens into the United States.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States
to take all appropriate action to secure the borders of
our Nation through the following means:
(a) Establishing a physical wall and other barriers
monitored and supported by adequate personnel and
technology;
(b) Deterring and preventing the entry of illegal
aliens into the United States;
(c) Detaining, to the maximum extent authorized by
law, aliens apprehended on suspicion of violating
Federal or State law, until such time as they are
removed from the United States;
(d) Removing promptly all aliens who enter or
remain in violation of Federal law;
(e) Pursuing criminal charges against illegal
aliens who violate the immigration laws, and against
those who facilitate their unlawful presence in the
United States;
(f) Cooperating fully with State and local law
enforcement officials in enacting Federal-State
partnerships to enforce Federal immigration priorities;
and
(g) Obtaining complete operational control of the
borders of the United States.
Sec. 3. Physical Barriers. The Secretary of Defense and
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all
appropriate action to deploy and construct temporary
and permanent physical barriers to ensure complete
operational control of the southern border of the
United States.
Sec. 4. Deployment of Personnel. (a) The Secretary of
Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall
take all appropriate and lawful action to deploy
sufficient personnel along the southern border of the
United States to ensure complete operational control;
and
(b) The Attorney General and the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall take all appropriate action to
supplement available personnel to secure the southern
border and enforce the immigration laws of the United
States through the use of sections 1103(a)(2) and (4)-
(6) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1103(a)(2) and (4)-(6)).
Sec. 5. Detention. The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall take all appropriate actions to detain, to the
fullest extent permitted by law, aliens apprehended for
violations of immigration law until their successful
removal from the United States. The Secretary shall,
consistent with applicable law, issue new policy
guidance or propose regulations regarding the
appropriate and consistent use of lawful detention
authority under the INA, including the termination of
the practice commonly known as “catch-and-release,”
whereby illegal aliens are routinely released into the
United States shortly after their apprehension for
violations of immigration law.
Sec. 6. Resumption of Migrant Protection Protocols. As
soon as practicable, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State
and the Attorney General, shall take all appropriate
action to resume the Migrant Protection Protocols in
all sectors along the southern border of the United
States and ensure that, pending removal proceedings,
aliens described in section 235(b)(2)(C) of the INA (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)(2)(C)) are returned to the territory
from which they came.
Sec. 7. Adjusting Parole Policies. The Secretary of
Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable
law, take all appropriate action to:
(a) Cease using the “CBP One” application as a
method of paroling or facilitating the entry of
otherwise inadmissible aliens into the United States;
(b) Terminate all categorical parole programs that
are contrary to the policies of the United States
established in my Executive Orders, including the
program known as the “Processes for Cubans, Haitians,
Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.”
(c) Align all policies and operations at the
southern border of the United States to be consistent
with the policy of Section 2 of this order and ensure
that all future parole determinations fully comply with
this order and with applicable law.
Sec. 8. Additional International Cooperation. The
Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney
General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall
take all appropriate action to facilitate additional
international cooperation and agreements, consistent
with the policy of Section 2, including entering into
agreements based upon the provisions of section
208(a)(2)(A) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(A)) or any
other applicable provision of law.
Sec. 9. DNA and Identification Requirements. (a) The
Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall take all appropriate action to fulfill the
requirements of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, title
X of Public Law 109-162, for all aliens detained under
the authority of the United States; and
(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall take
all appropriate action to use any available
technologies and procedures to determine the validity
of any claimed familial relationship between aliens
encountered or apprehended by the Department of
Homeland Security.
Sec. 10. Prosecution of Offenses. The Attorney General
and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all
appropriate action to prioritize the
prosecution of offenses that relate to the borders of
the United States, including the investigation and
prosecution of offenses that involve human smuggling,
human trafficking, child trafficking, and sex
trafficking in the United States.
Sec. 11. Additional Measures. Within 14 days of the
date of this order, the Secretary of State, the
Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall
provide recommendations to the President regarding the
use of any other authority to protect the United States
from foreign threats and secure the southern border.
Sec. 12. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 20, 2025.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed January 20, 2025. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.