President Donald Trump’s promised immigration crackdown began taking shape immediately upon his return to office this week, as he ushered in a spate of policy changes through executive orders that aim to put the United States out of reach for many aspiring immigrants worldwide.
For immigrants already in Georgia, the moves will result in significantly increased risk of deportation. In a reversal of a yearslong policy, immigration agents will be able to conduct arrests in schools, churches and hospitals — places previously deemed largely off-limits.
And for many caught in the immigration enforcement crosshairs, the removal process will be more streamlined than it was under Joe Biden, giving immigrants fewer options in fighting to remain in the country.
In tandem, newly signed executive decisions bringing an end to Biden-era programs that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to legally enter the country will likely result in significantly reduced flows of newcomers arriving to Georgia communities such as Lawrenceville, which federal data showed had emerged as a leading destination for recent border crossers.
A first-day executive action by Trump to curb birthright citizenship — which many legal experts view as unconstitutional — could have outsized impact on Georgia’s second-largest immigrant group: Indians.
The executive action would withhold U.S. citizenship from the babies of many mothers living in the country legally but temporarily, not just those in the country illegally. That includes holders of H-1B visas for skilled workers, over 70% of whom come from India. Because of a decades-long waitlist for green cards for Indian immigrants, many have no option but to remain on temporary visas for extended periods of time.
“I think people don’t realize that this would really negatively impact the family immigration process for children who are born here while their parents are in a very long queue” for green cards, said Nisha Karnani, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney and a founding member of the South Asian Bar Association of Georgia.
Under the birthright citizenship restriction, the U.S.-born children of H-1B visa holders would not be considered U.S. citizens. They would qualify for legal status through their parents, but that would lapse when they turn 21, and they would then face the prospect of having to leave the country.
Mere hours after the president signed the birthright citizenship executive order Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court to block it. And on Tuesday, attorneys general from 22 states and two cities also filed suits against the policy.
‘Everyone is scared of Trump’
Last spring, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution met Carlos and Gabriela, a young couple from Venezuela, in a McDonough hotel room, paid for by a local good Samaritan who wanted to help keep the family off the streets. They reached metro Atlanta after using a smartphone app dubbed CBP One to legally enter the U.S. from Mexico. They asked to only be identified with a first name to avoid jeopardizing their ongoing immigration cases.
The app-based system allowed 1,450 people a day to make an appointment to present themselves at a port of entry along the border and request asylum.
“The goal of a lot of the people who are coming is to get here before the election,” Carlos told the AJC in April. “They are worried about the election. Everyone is scared of Trump. The fear of every migrant, right now, is Trump.”
The app was shut down hours after the Trump inauguration, and all pending appointments were canceled.
The speed with which the app was taken offline “speaks of a coordinated and very well-planned effort,” said Gigi Pedraza, the executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia. “Trump hasn’t been sitting still the past four years. His team has been studying to become more effective. They developed a playbook, and they clearly know how to better navigate the bureaucracy and use the powers that he has in the executive branch.”
The Trump administration also scrapped a humanitarian parole program that was used under Biden to temporarily allow entrance to migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The program, meant to relieve pressure from the southern border, allowed migrants to fly directly to the U.S., if they could show they had a U.S.-based sponsor willing to support them here. Applicants to the program were also required to undergo a background check. Once approved, migrants were allowed to stay in the country for up to two years, and they qualified for a work permit.
Since the program’s creation in 2023, more than half a million people were allowed direct entry to the U.S.
Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney, estimates that tens of thousands of such migrants wound up settling in Georgia. “I probably met 500 of them, and I’m just one immigration lawyer,” he said.
Immigrants currently in Georgia through the parole program will likely keep their legal status until their parole period runs out. Once their two years are up, they will become deportable, if they haven’t applied for a more permanent kind of immigration relief such as asylum during their time here. Before the end of his presidency, the Biden administration announced it wouldn’t be renewing parolees’ status.
“They should plan their return, because there’s no doubt that (the government)has their addresses, their sponsors’ addresses,” Kuck said. “This is like picking up butterflies with a butterfly net in a butterfly garden. You know, they can round those people up relatively quickly if they wanted to. So those folks simply need to be prepared.”
Also among the most significant changes impacting immigrants in Georgia is the expansion of a policy dubbed “expedited removal,” which subjects people who are in the country unlawfully to a streamlined and expedited removal process.
“Essentially, people just get ordered removed. They don’t have any due process. They don’t have the chance to go before a judge and state their case on why they should stay,” said Jennifer Hamamoto, an immigration attorney and managing director of immigration at the Latin American Association, a nonprofit headquartered on Buford Highway.
Under Biden, federal immigration officials were only allowed to use expedited removal on unauthorized immigrants detained within 100 miles of an international border, and who had been in the country for less than two weeks. Now, the sped-up deportations will apply to unauthorized immigrants anywhere in the U.S. who have been present in the country for less than two years.
To avoid becoming subject to expedited removal, Hamamoto says immigrants without lawful status should always carry with them documents — leases, rental agreements, bank statements, utility bills and more — showing they have been living in the U.S. for longer than two years.
In yet another executive order, Trump signaled his intent to institute a travel ban for countries which traveler vetting and screening information is deemed “deficient.” Although details on the travel ban have yet to emerge, Karnani says clients are already rethinking international travel, out of fear they wouldn’t be able to return to the country.
“I’m getting a bunch of texts and emails from clients who have trips and they are on visas,” Karnani said. “So we’re still going through all of (the announced policy changes) to give travel advice and telling them just wait until I can check because every case is so different. And that’s kind of the mantra for all attorneys is: ‘Just don’t leave the U.S. without checking with me,’
“There’s a lot of concern about international travel.”
