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 Orders
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- Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion
- Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship
- Recission of Protected Areas Guidance & Issuance of Interim Guidance on Civil Immigration Enforcement
- Expansion of Expedited Removal
- Southern Border
- Temporary Pause of Financial Assistance Programs
- Designating Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists
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”
UPDATE: On January 23, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of this Executive Order. Keep an eye on this space for updates on the status of this EO and specific impacts on survivors as the situation evolves.
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.
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.
Recission of Protected Areas Guidance & Issuance of Interim Guidance on Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions in or near Courthouses
Guidance issued by the Secretary of the Department Homeland Security (DHS) on October 27, 2021 instructed immigration officers to refrain from engaging in enforcement actions at or near “protected areas”. This policy was part of DHS’s effort to avoid restricting people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities. This previous guidance instructed ICE to limit enforcement at places of worship, healthcare facilities, schools, domestic violence shelters, social services agencies, homeless shelters and courthouses (among others). This allowed survivors to more safely access these critical community resources and spaces without fear of immigration enforcement. This guidance has been rescinded.
Alternatively, the newly issued Interim Guidance eases restrictions on ICE enforcement activities near or within criminal and civil courthouses and provides no clear guidance to ICE regarding enforcement in or near other previously “protected areas”.
Impact on Survivors
In order for survivors to pursue justice and get safe, they need to know that the act of help-seeking will not result in immigration consequences. The recission of the Protected Areas Guidance coupled with the newly issued Interim Guidance on ICE enforcement at courthouses will result in survivors hesitating to report abuse and foregoing protection orders and custody rights for fear of getting caught up in the deportation machinery. While statute may provide an extra layer of protection for survivors, the chilling effect of such announcements remains the same.
Expansion of Expedited Removal
Among other things, the executive order “Protecting American People Against Invasion” calls for the expansion of “expedited removal” – often referred to as “fast track deportation” – to an extent never seen before. This allows the government to arrest someone accused of entering the country without inspection anywhere inside the U.S. and deport them if they believe that person has been here for less than two years. This would be allowed to happen without a court hearing and with the burden being on the immigrant to prove that they have been in the country for two years or more. The expansion of the government’s expedited removal authority was also announced as effective on January 21 via a Federal Register notice.
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of the District of Columbia, and the New York Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit challenging this action.
Impact on Survivors
As with all measures that make it easier to summarily deport individuals without due process, expanding the implementation of expedited removal throughout the country will only increase the fear that immigrant survivors face. Survivors may hesitate to leave the house, increasing their isolation and exposure to their abuser. This also puts another tool of power and control in the hands of abusers who may control, hide or destroy ID documents or other proof that a survivor is needs to confirm how long they have been in the country and defend themselves against fast-track deportation. For those survivors who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for two years or more, the fear of being reported to ICE by their abuser and deported may be overwhelming. Expedited removal of survivors will result in women being sent back to potentially lethal persecution, children being left behind in a home with a parent that uses violence, and it will also deny survivors the opportunity to report violence and help law enforcement hold abusers accountable, making all of our communities less safe. It will also deny survivors access to immigration relief they may be eligible for.
“Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border” & “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States”
The first Executive Order attempts to invoke the National Emergencies Act to declare a “border emergency” by perpetuating an “invasion” myth and repeating dehumanizing language and disproven claims about the impact of immigrants on public safety. Among other things, this “National Emergency” EO calls for military personnel to be deployed at the southern border, increased immigration detention capacity, and instructs officials to construct additional physical barriers at the southern border (border wall). The other military related EO invokes the “national emergency” to require the Secretary of Defense to assign the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) a mission to “seal the borders” and “repel[] forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration . . . .”
Impact on Survivors
The United States military should not be involved in immigration enforcement. The use of dehumanizing language and rhetoric increases the climate of fear for immigrant survivors and their families. This attempt to grant broad authority for “use of force” policies in border operations while invoking the language of war and “invasion” puts survivors seeking safety along our border at increased risk of militarized violence. Further, many survivors are fleeing rape and violence perpetrated against them by members of the military in other countries. Encountering U.S. military forces while trying to seek safety from gender-based violence can be retraumatizing and will not provide the appropriate environment to allow survivors the opportunity to disclose the full details of their persecution which is critical to achieving protection under the law.
“Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs”
This memo from the Administration orders that Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities implicated by the executive orders, beginning January 28 at 5 p.m,* to the extent permitted by law. It also instructs Federal agencies to modify unpublished Federal grant announcements, withdraw any grant announcements already published, and cancel funding that has already been awarded if the funded program or work is “in conflict with Administration priorities”.
*UPDATE: As of Wednesday, January 29th a federal judge issued an administrative stay of this OMB directive, which will pause the administration’s plans until Monday, February 3, at 5 pm. On this same day, the White House rescinded the memo but insisted the policy from the EO upon which the memo was based is still in place. Also on January 29, a federal judge in a separate lawsuit signaled he was likewise preparing to block Trump’s spending freeze. Stay tuned for updates as they come in.
There are a lot of unknowns about the short- and long-term impact of this memo given much of the funding has been lawfully appropriated by Congress and certain funding streams are further protected by statute. Nevertheless, this announcement has the potential to hold up almost all crucial funds that support programs and people in communities across the U.S. The programs potentially impacted include those funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice. This means funding streams from the Office of Violence Against Women and Office for Victims of Crime could be impacted leading to a potential pause in life saving housing assistance, shelter funding, legal aid and other social safety net services essential to the health, welfare and safety of communities across the United States.
Impact on Survivors
The social safety net is critical to every survivor’s ability to get and stay free from violence. The impacts of financial abuse and manipulation, coerced debt, and the debilitating impact of trauma and physical violence coupled with the fact that many survivors are prevented from completing their education and pursuing employment, mean that the social safety net is critical for a survivor’s ability to rebuild after abuse. This funding is also critical to ensure survivors have confidential shelter and housing options when they have nowhere else they can safely escape to. No matter their status, immigrant survivors have unique barriers to legal representation, financial independence and stability, medical care, work and education. In order to leave, a survivor must know that the world beyond her front door is safer for her than the world behind it. This pause in funding could mean the difference between a survivor being able to leave or feeling they have no choice but to stay.
“Designating Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other Threats”
The first Executive Order requires the Secretary of State to make a recommendation regarding the designation of cartels or certain gangs as terrorist organizations by Monday, February 3
In this EO, President Trump orders the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to make operational preparations in the event he invokes the Alien Enemies Act, an archaic and dangerous wartime law from 1798. He further orders them to prepare “such facilities as necessary to expedite the removal of those who may be designated under this order.”
The second EO instructs the Secretary of State and certain other agencies to – by March 21, 2025 – identify entire countries that “warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries” and to report the number of nationals from those countries that have “entered or been admitted to the United States on or since January 20, 2021” among other information related to the activities of such nationals.
Impact on Survivors
These Executive Orders will make it easier to detain and deport survivors and their family members – without any hearings or due process – who are seeking asylum and trying to escape the violence inflicted by these groups. To be clear, women and girls have been targeted by cartel and gang members, trafficked, raped and robbed, and even tortured to death. Survivors flee this violence to the safety of the United States; indeed, the criminal activities of such groups are already prohibited by extensive laws in the United States. An foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation could mean that survivors fleeing the violence from these organizations, however, are improperly turned away due to the very persecution from which they are fleeing. Indeed, in combination with the new mandatory bars rule now being applied at the border before a person seeking asylum even has access to counsel or trauma services, the administration could try to use a terrorism-related inadmissibility ground to block fleeing survivors who were held captive and forced to perform certain acts by individuals in these groups or forced to pay money to escape, for instance.
Additionally, the second Executive Order’s focus on “extreme vetting” is often used as a smokescreen for targeting all people from certain countries, including survivors fleeing violence, and for discriminatory policies such as travel bans.
