As President Donald Trump begins his second term in 2025, his administration has wasted no time in reinstating and expanding his hardline immigration policies. The bulk of these policies have been reinstated as they were also significant during his first presidency. This agenda heavily focuses on illegal immigration, border security, and deportation. 

Since being back in office, President Trump has declared illegal immigration a national emergency. Due to that, he has promised to secure the border and has stated that the military will be used where it is necessary. Within the first week, there were 10 executive orders signed surrounding immigration. 

This time around, mass deportation threats are being increased. Trump has set the goal of 1 million people being deported within his first year in office. 

Mass deportations are not a foreign idea to the United States. Under former president Biden’s administration, more than 270,000 immigrants were deported, according to a report by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

One of the differences in the president’s plans is the amount of people being forced to exit the country. As the government continues to work with ICE, they will most likely encounter numerous setbacks. ICE is a historically underfunded agency that does not have enough employees or material to go through with mass deportations. 

Detention spaces will also have to significantly increase to be able to hold great amounts of people. New structures are being announced, such as the United States naval base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000 people, which only makes up roughly 3% of the estimated deportation population. Previously, this site was known for holding suspected terrorists after the destruction that were the 9/11 attacks. 

Utilizing Guantanamo Bay for immigration detention has brought up a lot of legal and ethical questioning from critics. The Trump administration may argue that the base is a secure and isolated location, suitable for undocumented people. However, others argue that this is a violation of human rights and international law. 

Some of the groups that have been contesting this move have been led by the American Civil Liberties Union. They, as a collective, have sued the Trump administration for the detainment of migrants, demanding that they have access to lawyers. The lack of communication between the immigrants and lawyers is the main point of the lawsuit, as well as no contact with their families or the outside world.

Reports say that some of the people taken to Guantanamo Bay are members of the Venezuelan organized crime group, Tren de Aragua. This group has been labeled as a transnational criminal organization by the United States, giving them probable cause to limit their access to resources. The Trump administration says that the group’s stay at Guantanamo will be temporary as they are searching for other countries to take them in, steering away from that messy responsibility. 

As for the rest of the people being kept in Guantanamo, their time there is unknown. The base has been called the “black hole” due to the timeline of prisoners being indefinite. Many people are left without receiving the chance for the hearing of a trial. 

Aside from the ongoings within the facility, there is also the moral debate over the concept of deportation. The American Civil Liberties Union has included this perspective in their federal lawsuit, speaking on behalf of uprooted people who have been separated from their families. This required the immediate reunion of all children to their parents, and the ACLU will not stop fighting until that is assured. 

The moral and ethical implications of deportation policies, especially when they result in family separations, are profound. The ACLU’s efforts highlight the need for a more humane approach to immigration and the importance of protecting the rights and dignity of all individuals, regardless of their immigration status. 

For people seeking out ways to legally immigrate to the United States, paths do not seem to be clear. The Trump administration plans to first restrict, then completely eliminate legal immigration. 

With immigration about to cease both legally and illegally, it will be interesting to see how population numbers play out. From an economic standpoint, the labor force will also decline because of that. In the long-term, how will the United States go about growth and stability?