Numerous executive orders were signed by the President on January 20, 2025, including several related to immigration restriction, deterrence, and reduction. These orders are being challenged in court and implementation plans are not yet public. While rapid, dramatic policy changes can cause confusion and fear for all immigrants and their advocates, understanding the unique impact on those who have experienced trauma and are seeking safety is critical to both individual and policy advocacy responses.
This analysis focuses on the impact the January 20 executive orders are likely to have on the ability of immigrant women, girls, and other survivors of gender-based violence to access safety and the legal status to which they are entitled under law.
This page will be updated as our advocates continue to provide analysis on immigration related executive orders and administrative actions.
Executive Order – “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion”
While access to asylum was already extremely limited, this Executive Order (EO) combined with other immigration related EOs announced this week and the shutdown of the CBP One app, though flawed, will make it practically impossible to seek asylum at our southern border. This EO instructs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to repel or remove any noncitizen seeking entry at the southern border and calls for the end of asylum processing, claiming that the asylum provisions of INA 208 do not apply if DHS cannot obtain reliable medical and criminal information about an asylum seeker prior to entry. It does not appear to allow for exceptions for trafficking victims, unaccompanied children, or those whose removal would send them back to persecution or torture if they cannot provide health information and information regarding criminal history prior to crossing our border.
Impact on Survivors
Survivors fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, female genital mutilation/cutting, forced marriage and other forms of violence do so under extreme threat for which there is no remedy or protection where they live. We know that survivors do not make the decision to leave lightly and that leaving is often the most dangerous and lethal time for them. When safety is not possible at home, they make the harrowing journey to our border as their last hope for a life of dignity and justice. And they often flee with just the clothes on their back.
By closing our southern border to practically everyone as this EO does, this Administration is slamming the door on asylum seekers who are fleeing domestic and sexual violence and condemning them to life-threatening situations along our southern border where they struggle to find safe shelter and protection. Survivors fleeing persecution who remain shut out and trapped along our southern border very often face re-traumatization and violence and many fear being killed. Read Tahirih’s report with Oxfam on the devastating impact of deterrence-based policies like these on immigrant survivors.
Executive Order – “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”
This Executive Order attempts to end birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, for children born in the United States after February 19, 2025* if the mother is undocumented or here with temporary permission, and if the father was not a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth.
*There is some confusion surrounding the exact effective date of this EO with some saying it is the 18th, others the 19th and still others the 20th of February. At this time Tahirih’s best analysis puts the effective date at February 19th and we will update this information should that change.
Impact on Survivors
It is important to note that this EO only applies to individuals born after February 19, 2025, and how it would be implemented and who exactly it would impact remains unclear. Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of this order have already been filed by the ACLU, NAACP LDF, Asian Law Caucus, State Democracy Defenders Fund, ASAP, CASA, and ICAP at Georgetown Law, and other immigrants’ rights organizations. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have also filed suit against this executive order.
This policy change would put another tool of power and control into the hands of abusers who have been shown to use the undocumented status of their victims to inspire fear, silence, isolation, and compliance. Tahirih and its peers have documented the impact of fear on the willingness of survivors to testify in court, assist law enforcement, and get themselves and their children to safety.
If this change in citizenship rights were to become law, abusers may leverage their citizenship status over pregnant immigrant survivors by threatening not to cooperate with the necessary processes to ensure their child with the survivor is granted citizenship. Children born in the United States without U.S. citizenship may be stateless which would result in a cascade of vulnerabilities and barriers for mother and child. Keep an eye on this space for updates on the status of this EO and specific impacts on survivors as the situation evolves.
