It’s not unusual for an incoming president to sign a smattering of executive orders on their first day in office, but President-Elect Donald Trump plans to sign a whopping 100 and this is something that is unprecedented in modern times. He is expected to sign executive orders on border security, deportations, and other policy priorities.
You can bet that at least some of these orders aren’t going to be good news for a lot of people since this is Trump, after all, and considering his unfounded and racist hatred of immigrants. As the first convicted felon in office, the fact that he’s signing all these orders is worrisome and possibly downright terrifying.
Trump told Republican senators about his intentions during a private meeting on Capitol Hill, HuffPost reports. The fact that he plans to sign so many of these orders on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when he takes office is ominous. Trump goon advisor Stephen Miller informed the senator about the border security and immigration enforcement measures Trump hopes to implement soon, Axios reports
“There will be a substantial number,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D
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GOP minions who support the president-elect have conjured a stack of executive orders that Trump could sign quickly on a deluge of topics – the U.S.-Mexico border, energy development, Schedule F workforce rules, school gender policies, and vaccine mandates and several other promises Trump made as he implied he would sign these on his first day in office.
As you might expect, many Biden administration executive orders are on the chopping block, and GOP senators are anxiously awaiting Trump’s almost certain rollback of these orders while implementing his own proposals in their place. Trump will almost certainly implement orders to finish the building of the border wall, set up more immigration detention centers to house migrants until they are expelled is just a small fraction of what this president hopes to do. And there’s a wellspring of funds to help accomplish this – a whopping $100 billion to be exact, senators say.
Folks, some of this is almost ghoulish. Almost, I say as GOP senators do all sorts of hand-wringing, hoping Trump will revert to the same racist border measures he used during his first term in office – including some that require migrants to apply in other countries or stay in Mexico instead of entering the U.S. as their claims are processed. And massive enforcement actions on steroids will also be implemented to deport people currently living in the U.S. illegally.
So, what can I say, kids? Looks like there’s already a whole lotta fun to be had.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Ok.) led negotiations on border security and immigration during the last Congress, and he expressed confidence that the Trump team will focus on an estimated 1 million migrants who, he said, recently entered the country and have been convicted of crimes or who courts have determined are ineligible to stay in the U.S.
Lankford noted that these folks are easy pickings.
“That’s the low-hanging fruit,” he said. “People that recently crossed, people that were legally present and committed other crimes, people that the court has ordered them removed – that’s well over a million people. Start working through that process.”
During his presidential campaign, Trump even hinted he’d like to have a “tiny desk” during Inauguration Day at the Capitol where he could sit and quickly sign his executive orders.
There are no obvious signs that Trump is considering this, but the GOP senators plan to welcome Trump inside the building after he takes the oath of office. This is generally when the president signs the paperwork needed to formally nominate Cabinet and administrative picks.
This is a scary time. I’m sure you already know that. Some of his picks–Miller, for instance, are downright creepy, and Ron Homan, his choice for border czar, plans mass arrests and other shocking things. As this report from NBC News notes, the man is hell-bent on punishing immigrants and even plans to go so far as closing the Darien Gap, an immense jungle in Panama, where people enter and are often never seen again.
So I’m not hopeful about the next 4 years. I’m not hopeful for immigrants, I’m not hopeful for women, for science and those who know climate change is real, and I’m not hopeful for anyone who is poor. Frankly, the poor are often completely ignored when it comes to positive change.
I fully believe we are in for a tragic time.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
