Donald Trump wasted no time making his return to the White House felt, diving headfirst into the border crisis that many conservatives argue the Biden administration allowed to spiral out of control. On his first day in office, Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at restoring border security and undoing what he called the “disastrous” policies of his predecessor. The message was clear: a secure border is achievable, and the chaos of the past four years was anything but inevitable.
One of Trump’s first moves was to declare an emergency at the southern border, ordering the immediate resumption of construction on the border wall. Biden had abruptly halted the project upon taking office, leaving construction materials to gather dust as illegal crossings skyrocketed. Trump’s order also deployed U.S. troops to the border under Northern Command, directing them to prioritize the protection of U.S. territorial integrity. This included combating illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling—issues the Biden administration seemed content to let fester. For Trump, this wasn’t just about optics; it was about taking tangible steps to reassert control over the border.
Another key executive order scrapped the CBP One app, a tool used by the Biden administration to release illegal immigrants into the U.S. on a mass scale. What had once been a rarely used parole policy turned into a mechanism for admitting tens of thousands of migrants each month. Trump shut it down immediately, canceling all pending appointments and sending a clear signal that the days of mass catch-and-release were over. The app, which many critics viewed as a digital open-door policy, epitomized the Biden administration’s lack of enforcement at the border, a trend Trump was determined to reverse.
Trump also reinstated his highly effective Remain in Mexico policy, a deterrent against fraudulent asylum claims. Under the policy, migrants caught crossing illegally were required to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings. This simple measure had drastically reduced illegal crossings during Trump’s first term, as economic migrants—who make up the vast majority of illegal border crossers—had little incentive to wait in Mexican border towns when their asylum claims had slim chances of approval. Biden had scrapped the policy early in his presidency, and the results were predictable: a flood of asylum claims, years-long backlogs in immigration courts, and overwhelmed border communities.
Perhaps the boldest move of the day was Trump’s decision to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. This classification allows federal authorities to freeze their assets, sanction their leaders, and take more aggressive action against their operations. Trump’s administration made it clear that the cartels should expect no sanctuary, even on the Mexican side of the border. While it remains to be seen whether cross-border military operations will follow, the message was unmistakable: the cartels’ reign of terror is no longer safe under the new administration.
For years, conservatives have argued that the Biden administration’s border policies were less about incompetence and more about intentional chaos. By dismantling Trump-era policies that had reduced illegal immigration to record lows, Biden and his team created a crisis and then feigned helplessness in addressing it. Trump’s swift actions on his first day back in office highlight just how avoidable this chaos was all along. The executive orders signed Monday serve as both a corrective to the last four years and a promise to Americans that open borders will not define this administration. Whether his critics like it or not, Trump has put the border back at the center of the national agenda—and this time, he’s not taking any chances.
