Speakers: Michael T. Jackson
Following his inauguration for a second term as U.S. president on 20 January, Donald Trump signed 26 executive orders on his first day in office, impacting a wide range of policy issues. Most of these executive orders, with the exception of one related to the global minimum tax, did not have direct, immediate ramifications for talent mobility. However, many orders, particularly those related to immigration, set into motion actions that are anticipated to lead to a range of impacts in the coming weeks and months ahead. These include, but are not limited to, an anticipated reinstatement of travel bans for certain foreign nationals, updated reviews and guidance memos impacting adjudication and processing, agency reviews of various visa categories, and potential changes to birthright citizenship eligibility for nonimmigrant visa holders.
Below is a summary of key executive orders that occurred since President Trump returned to office:
Immigration-Related Items
Revocation of Biden administration executive orders: Revoking various executive orders and presidential actions signed during the Biden administration. These include:
- Executive Order (EO) 14012, which reversed a range of Trump-era guidance and actions impacting legal immigration actions, including around public charge inadmissibility, reducing times related to naturalization processes, and revocation of the 2019 Presidential Memorandum on Enforcing the Legal Responsibilities of Sponsors of Aliens.
- EO 13993, which revoked President Trump’s 2017 EO 13768 (Enhancing Public Safety of the Interior of the United States), which expanded enforcement priorities and defined priorities for deportations.
- EO 14110, which addressed a range of provisions related to the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI). The EO included a range of immigration actions to facilitate nonimmigrant and immigrant pathways for AI experts and other critical individuals related to emerging technologies.
Travel ban: Preparing for “travel ban” reinstatements by no later than 21 March, identifying countries by identify countries where “vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on admissions of nationals from those countries.” Additionally, agencies must determine if any individuals who entered or were admitted into the U.S. since the end of the first Trump administration in 2021 need to be excluded from admission and removed from the country.
Enhanced vetting: Updating no later than by 19 February the “regulations, policies, procedures, and provisions of the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) regarding grounds for inadmissibility … to ensure the continued safety and security of the American people and our constitutional republic.”
Visa Category Reviews: Reviewing no later than 19 February all visa programs to “ensure they are not used by foreign nation-states or other hostile actors to harm the security, political, cultural, or other national interests of the United States.”
Potential Actions Against Foreign Nationals: Obtaining recommendations from agencies by 19 February on how to “protect the American people from the actions of foreign nationals who have undermined or seek to undermine the fundamental Constitutional rights of the American people, including but not limited to, our Citizen’s rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment, who preach or call for sectarian violence, the overthrow or replacement of the culture on which our Constitutional Republic stands, or who provide aid, advocacy, or support for foreign terrorists.”
Birthright Citizenship: Restricting eligibility for birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment to exclude individuals whose mother is a foreign national either unlawfully in the United States at the time of birth or lawfully admitted into the United States on a temporary nonimmigrant visa. Government agencies are prohibited from issuing documents to excluded individuals confirming U.S. citizenship or recognizing documents issued by state, local, or other entities. This EO would apply to individuals born after 19 February 2025. Since its release, Attorneys General from 22 U.S. states have filed lawsuits in federal district courts challenging the legality of the executive order, and this litigation has resulted in a temporary hold being issued on 23 January by a federal judge.
U.S. Refugee Program: Suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for up to 90 days, effective from 27 January 2025 at 12:01 a.m. ET. USRAP will only resume after review by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State and submission of reports on whether to restart the program based on national interests. The program will continue to be reviewed every 90 days until the president determines “that resumption of the USRAP is in the interests of the United States.”
ICE Actions at Sensitive Locations: Rescinding by DHS of Biden administration-era guidelines related to ICE action restrictions at “sensitive” areas such as schools, hospitals, and churches.
Foreign Policy: Directives requiring the U.S. Secretary of State to review and issue guidance to bring “the Department of State’s policies, programs, personnel, and operations in line with an America First foreign policy, which puts America and its interests first.”
Border Security: Implementing a range of executive orders related to border security, including:
- Declaring a national emergency at the Southern border pursuant to the National Emergencies Act. The declaration includes a range of actions, including the deployment of the U.S. military to the Southern border and the creation of new physical border barriers along the southern border.
- Ensuring that U.S. Armed Forces “prioritize the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States along our national borders,” and launching military processes to create and implement plans to deploy Armed Forces personnel to “seal the border” and repel “forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
- Declaring various cartels and other transnational organizations as terrorist organizations, with review of potential organizations and operational preparations to occur within 14 days.
Trade, Tariffs, and Tax
Tariffs: Tasking the Treasury Department, in consultation with Commerce and Homeland Security, to “investigate the feasibility of establishing and recommend[ing] the best methods for designing, building, and implementing an External Revenue Service (ERS) to collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign trade-related revenues.” No tariffs were implemented on Day 1, but President Trump indicated in subsequent comments that tariffs on Canada and Mexico could come as early as 1 February.
USMCA Review: Commencing the public consultation process connected with the July 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to “assess the impact of the USMCA on American workers, farmers, ranchers, service providers, and other businesses and make recommendations regarding the United States’ participation in the agreement.”
Global Minimum Tax: Opting out of participation in the 2021 arrangement establishing a global corporate minimum tax, ordering review of foreign tax arrangements and treaties and their impact on U.S. companies with foreign partners, and determining potential “protective measures or other actions that the United States should adopt or take in response to such non-compliance or tax rules.”
U.S. Federal Workforce Items
Federal Hiring Freeze: Implementing a hiring freeze for any open or new positions within the U.S. federal workforce, excluding military personnel and positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety, The freeze remains until the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE) Service submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce through “efficiency improvements and attrition.” Under the executive order, the OMB/DOGE plan must be created by 20 April 2025, at which point the freeze will be lifted for all agencies except for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The order will not be lifted for the IRS until it is determined to be in the “national interest to lift the freeze.”
Civil Service Revisions: Reinstating Executive Order 13957 (2020), which exempted various career civil service positions with roles of a “confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating character” from civil service employment protections and easing the ability of exempted individuals to be removed from their roles. The order also orders OMB to amend Civil Service regulations removing changes implemented in a final rule of 9 April 2024 (89 Fed. Reg 24982), which must be rescinded before the terms of the executive order could be implemented.
Federal Workforce Return-to-Work: Requiring federal agencies to “terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”
Housing Items
Housing Items: Ordering executive agencies to, among other things, pursue and implement actions to “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply” and “eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances.”
WERC U.S. Immigration Rapid Response Group
As the Trump administration implements changes related to employment-based immigration in the United States, WERC has convened a cross-industry rapid response task force to support the talent mobility industry in navigating the evolving landscape and its impacts on companies and transferees. This task force, co-chaired by WERC Immigration Policy Forum members Ann Truett and Kelli Duehning, brings together leading subject matter experts from immigration law firms and RMCs along with experienced corporate immigration and global mobility practitioners.
The task force will review the changes for potential ramifications for talent mobility, advise on potential WERC advocacy-related actions, and identify and support the development of content and resources geared toward mobility practitioners around the changes. Additionally, the group will also partner closely with WERC’s Immigration Policy Forum and other volunteer groups in conjunction with the changing immigration landscape in the United States.
Next Steps
WERC has created a new webpage that members can use to access various resources and that will be updated with new and revised resources as necessary. Additionally, resources will be shared out as applicable via future editions of the Mobility Minute e-newsletter and/or via WERC’s social media channels. WERC and its U.S. Immigration Rapid Response Task Force will continue to monitor developments and will share future updates with the membership.