President Donald Trump signs executive orders involving immigration

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 9:27PM CT
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Immigrant communities across Texas and the nation are trying to figure out their futures as President Donald Trump begins to make major changes in immigration policy and enforcement.

In just the last 48 hours, the administration shut down an app that helps migrants seeking asylum enter the country legally.

President Trump also signed an executive order that would end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the Constitution.

More than 20 blue-led states are challenging that order, with the first court hearing on Thursday.

The Trump administration is also stating that federal agents can make immigration arrests at places like schools, churches, and hospitals.



Those places have been protected zones since 2011.

There are many questions swirling around the changes, including whether all of them are legal.

As we talk to immigration advocates, they tell us many are worried and have many questions about what exactly could be coming and how soon all of this could take effect.

"A lot of people are worried," FIEL director Cesar Espinosa said.

Espinosa says his clients are looking for guidance and answers to the president's new orders.



"Some of these orders go into effect right away. Others in a week or so, others in a month, and then there might be some actions taken months from now," Josh Blackman, a constitutional law expert, said.

The order is expected to go into place in 30 days, halting the birthright citizenship of children of undocumented parents.

"If you are physically born here, you are a citizen of the United States, and that decision has gone unchallenged for 130 years," said constitutional law expert Seth Chandler.

Chandler says that's until now.

"If President Trump wants to change immigration law, he needs to do it the right way, and the right way is to do a constitutional amendment; it's not something you can just change by executive order because you don't like birthright citizenship," Chandler said.



Twenty-two states are pushing back on this executive order as several lawsuits have been filed calling the move unconstitutional.

"It's going to be up to judges to make those determinations. We are definitely worried about the stance that the conservative Supreme Court can take, but that could be months if not years," Espinosa said.

Experts say this battle will now go into the courts.

"I don't think the courts are going to back him up on this because it would take the Supreme Court to say they got it totally wrong 130 years ago or a constitutional amendment, which will take years," Chandler said.

A new Trump policy is also allowing ICE agents to arrest undocumented immigrants at safe locations like schools and churches.



"We didn't know that they were going to change the policy for sensitive areas, so when it came down. HISD does not have a policy, and there has not been any guidance," educator and Houston Education Association leader Michelle Williams said.

It's a concern that she's taking directly to the school district.

The Children at Risk organization reports there are more than a hundred thousand undocumented students in K-12 across Texas.

An HISD spokesperson sent the following statement to ABC13 when asked questions about the matter:

"HISD enrolls and educates any school-aged student who lives within our attendance boundaries regardless of immigration status. We will continue to follow federal and state laws, which dictate how any law enforcement agency interacts with students on a school campus. The District will comply with the law as we are required to do, and we will continue to provide guidance and support to its schools as issues evolve. Above all else, the District will educate all students, regardless of immigration status, that come through our doors in a fair, just, equitable manner."

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