President Donald Trump is expected to sign a series of executive orders to fulfil his campaign poll promises, including declaring an emergency at the southern border, addressing a national energy crisis, and defining sex-related policies, senior White House officials from the new administration said on Monday.
Trump, 78, was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, marking his remarkable return to power for a second term.
He is expected to sign 10 executive orders related to immigration, among which the most prominent is ending the automatic recognition of birthright citizenship, an official said.
Explaining the executive order that defines sex, the official said it recognises that the erasure of sex in language and policy has had a corrosive impact, not just on women, but also on the validity of the American system.
The official said that recognising males who identify as women has undermined key aspects of women's lives, including opportunities, privacy, safety, and fairness. This approach disregards inherent biological differences and needs, such as privacy and physical size differences.
By prioritising self-identification over biological sex, the government erodes trust in its institutions, as citizens feel their concerns and realities are being ignored.
Another executive order will end the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programmes. It is meant to create equal treatment and end DEI inside the federal government, the official said.
"It explains a lot of the equity programming that has resulted from the Biden administration. On day one, we have the Federal Aviation Administration actively recruiting individuals with severe intellectual disabilities. People have obvious concerns about airline safety if individuals are not being hired based on capability but rather on characteristics they cannot control," said the official.
For now this order would not be implemented on the private businesses.
Soon after his swearing-in, Trump and his team will immediately prioritise tackling the national security and public safety threats that have resulted from the open border.
"Number one, we are going to declare a national emergency at the border. What this action does is it deploys Armed Forces to erect physical barriers by directing DOD (Department of Defence) and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) secretaries to finish the wall along the border and allow for counter UAS (Unmanned aircraft systems) capabilities near the southern borders," said another official.
"Specifically, it directs the defence secretary to deploy additional personnel to the border, including members of the armed forces and the National Guard. Secondly, we are going to clarify the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States...This executive order directs the military to prioritise our borders and territory integrity in strategic planning for its operations," the official said.
The official said they're also planning to end the policy known as 'catch and release', which released those without legal status from detention while they awaited an immigration court hearing.
The action would also reinstate 'Remain in Mexico', which would require some asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their hearings in US immigration court. And it would direct the US to build the wall along the southern border.
"We're going to designate criminal cartels and others as FTOs (Foreign Terrorist Organisations) and specifically designated global terrorists," the official said.
The Trump administration plans to suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months.
"We are going to end asylum and close the border to illegals via proclamation, which creates an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum. We are then going to end birthright citizenship," the official said.
President Trump is likely to sign an executive order under which the federal government will not recognise automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants born in the United States.
"We are also going to enhance the vetting and screening of illegal migrants. We are going to direct agencies to report to the president regarding recommendations for the suspension of entry for nationals of any country of particular concern, and second to last, we will protect the American people against invasion.
"What this particular action does is, it rescinds the open borders policies of the Biden administration," the official said.
It also reaffirms the faithful execution of the immigration laws, prioritises enforcement actions against criminal illegal migrants and establishes federal Homeland Security Task Forces to cooperate with state and local law enforcement in the removal of gangs, criminals and illegal aliens from the US, the official said.
"Finally, we plan to restore the death penalty in public safety," the official said.
According to another White House official, President Trump will sign an executive order that specifically focuses on Alaska.
Alaska has an abundance of natural resources that under the previous administration, both the Department of the Interior and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have limited Alaska's production and its ability to produce wealth for American citizens.
"Alaska is so key for our national security, given its geo strategic location. It is a crucial place from which we could export LNG, not only to other parts of the US, but also to our friends and allies in the Asia Pacific region. The president is set to sign a national energy emergency. And the rationale for this national energy emergency is that high costs of energy are unnecessary," the official said.
"Curtailing our energy production by design through policy under the previous administration is an unnecessary burden on the exercise of our foreign policy abroad, especially through American energy dominance," another official said.
The National Energy emergency is crucial because the US is in an AI race with China, the official said.
"Our ability to produce domestic American energy is so crucial such that we can generate the electricity and power that's needed to stay at the Global forefront of technology, that national energy emergency will unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity, and to strengthen our nation's national security," the official said.
President Trump is also expected to sign a presidential memorandum on inflation.
-- By Lalit K Jha in Washington, DC
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