Trump Day One, Immigration, January 6 Pardons
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Donald Trump is back. Here I am. The American people have spoken. Within hours in the White House, he signed a flurry of executive orders to roll back President Biden's policies and implement his own. I'm A. Martinez. That's Leila Fadal. And this is Up First from NPR News.

His executive orders paved the way for his promised crackdown on immigration. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. But some of the moves pushed the bounds of the law and the Constitution. Trump also issued sweeping pardons and commutations for everyone convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol.

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Donald Trump is starting his second term as president. What will his administration do and what policies will it promote? On the NPR Politics Podcast, we'll break down what the new administration does and explain why it matters. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every day.

President Trump begins his first full day at the White House today. So let's catch up because yesterday was a lot. After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, he wasted no time undoing President Biden's policies and starting to implement his own, all while using his trademark Sharpie marker. So this is a big one.

That was the sound of Trump signing one of dozens of executive orders, actions and proclamations on his first night back in power. Here with us to break down all that's already happened in the Trump presidency is White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Good morning, Franco. Good morning, Laila. OK, so you were at the White House as Trump signed these actions in the Oval Office. What really stood out to you?

Yeah, I mean, I think clearly it's the pardons of those involved in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. I mean, he pardoned 1,500 people who were involved, a really big number. I mean, he also signed a series of orders on immigration. He took a big step toward his own stated goal of overhauling the federal government. Doing so, he signed an order reclassifying tens of thousands of career civil servants,

so that they can be easily replaced with basically loyalists who are more willing to carry out his agenda. I'll just note that's likely to face legal challenges. Okay, so not even a full day in office and he's signing all these orders, including things, as you point out, that will likely be contested in court. Why the hurry? What's the message here?

Well, I mean, on the one hand, it's a full-scale assault on President Biden's legacy. Trump revoked nearly 80 executive actions taken by the Biden administration on issues like climate, energy, and diversity programs. On the other, it's a sign of how Trump plans to expand his presidential powers. I mean, a number of these orders will be challenged in the courts, like you said, but Trump and his team just do not seem to care. I mean, they've made it very clear they're willing to be creative when interpreting and applying these old laws and new ways to fulfill his agenda. And I think that's a big part of the reason why he's so excited about this.

It also shows how Trump is willing to get back at people who he feels wronged him. I mean, just as an example, one executive order, there was a measure revoking the security clearance of his former national security advisor, John Bolton. Bolton, of course, wrote a book that Trump was unfit to be president. Were his orders and actions generally focused on domestic issues overall? I mean, it was kind of a mix of domestic and foreign long list.

And as he signed, he actually took questions from reporters who were in the pool in the room about his plans to do in office. I mean, one of them asked when he'll talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine. Here's what Trump said. I have to speak to President Putin. We're going to have to find out. He can't be thrilled. He's not doing so well. I mean, he's grinding it out. But most people thought that war would have been over in about one week. And now you're into three years, right?

So he can't be thrilled. It's not making him look very good. So we'll be watching to see when some of these calls with Putin and other foreign leaders start to take place. Okay, so that all happened like in hours, not even a full day in office. So today is actually his first full day in office. What should we expect?

I mean, he's already busy. You know, he posted on social media this morning that he was removing more than a thousand of Biden administration appointees like celebrity chef Jose Andres and retired General Mark Milley. And my colleague Deidre Walsh confirmed that House Speaker Mike Johnson is planning to come to the White House today. But really, beyond that, we don't know much more. NPR's Franco Ordonez. Thank you, Franco. Thank you, Layla. Thank you.

Immigration is at the center of Trump's first moves as president, a key part of his campaign message and rise back to power.

As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions. And that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody's ever seen before. He signed a handful of actions tied to immigration yesterday evening and rescinding other Biden administration policies on asylum and the border. Some, though, push the legal bounds of the law and the Constitution.

NPR's immigration policy reporter, Ximena Bustillo, has been covering all of this and joins me now. Hi, Ximena. Good morning. Good morning. So Trump has made some very specific promises around immigration. What actions did he take yesterday? Trump signed executive actions aimed at increasing border security and reducing pathways for legal migration.

Some included his boldest promises, like reinterpreting the 14th Amendment to mean that those born in the U.S. do not get automatic citizenship, as has been the most common interpretation. Trump also brought back some policies from his first term, resuming border wall construction and pausing refugee resettlement. A few other things happened yesterday as well. He shut down the CPB1 app. This was something President Joe Biden created, which allowed migrants to schedule appointments outside

at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. This created immediate impact at the southern border. People who had waited months to be able to schedule an appointment suddenly lost that chance. Is everything he's signing legal and constitutional? I'm thinking of birthright citizenship. I mean, can he just end it? The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says all persons born in the United States are citizens. This is something that he has long promised to do, though this is already being challenged in courts.

Last night, a coalition of civil rights and civil liberty groups filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire saying Trump's decision was unconstitutional and goes against congressional intent and longstanding Supreme Court precedent. And others are looking into this, too. And there's a lot of unknowns generally about the ability to implement many of these actions. For example, Trump says he wants to send the military and National Guard to the border, but there's no clarity on who would go, how many or to do what.

I mean, and just a reminder, I mean, Trump's been in power for not even a full day yet. That starts today. But he does have some of his cabinet in place, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Does he have his immigration team assembled?

Trump selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead Homeland Security, but she has not been confirmed yet by the Senate. There are also key posts at the Defense Department that may need to be in place to deploy resources to the southern border. And agencies like DHS do need congressional funding to scale up their operations. And while there is interest in having border security be a part of the next budget-related measure, that's still several weeks away, if not months.

And speaking of Congress, I mean, lawmakers did actually take action on immigration last night. What did they do? Twelve Democrats joined Republicans to pass the Lake and Riley Act. This is a bill that would lower the bar for who the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can detain and deport based on their crimes, such as theft or assault against law enforcement. The bill now goes back to the House, which is expected to pass it. And this could reach Trump's desk as the first legislation that he signs in his second term. But

it might be pretty hard to implement. I got an internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that said that they'd need $26 billion in just the first year to comply with the order, to house those they detain, and to hire more people to process them. NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you, Ximena. Thank you.

As we mentioned earlier, President Trump issued pardons and commutations to every single defendant charged and convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Yeah, that includes people convicted of assaulting police on that day with bath poles, pepper spray and other weapons. More than 140 officers were injured on January 6, and their injuries included crushed spinal discs, traumatic brain injuries and a heart attack.

And PR's Tom Dreisbach has been covering the attack and the pardons, and he joins me now. Good morning. Good morning. So take us through the pardons and the commutations that Trump issued.

Right. So almost every single defendant got a full unconditional pardon. That means their conviction is forgiven. If they're locked up, they get released. If they were convicted of a felony, they get their gun rights back. And that group includes more than 400 people charged or convicted of violent assaults on law enforcement, driving a stun gun into an officer's neck, for example, beating officers with a bat.

And then just 14 people are getting these commutations. So they still have a felony on the record, but they are getting out of prison. And all of those people are linked to the far-right groups involved in January 6th, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Most of that group were convicted of seditious conspiracy. But I should say the headline here is,

Everyone charged in connection with January 6th, whether they pleaded guilty or lost at trial, whether they assaulted cops or not, whether they were found to be violent extremists or not, they are all getting relief from Trump. I mean, it's not a surprise, right, that Trump had promised pardons for January 6th rioters for years.

But were you surprised by the scope? Well, yeah. Members of the incoming administration had said this would not happen. Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News earlier this month that, quote, obviously they should not pardon people who assaulted police.

In fact, Trump has embraced, however, even the violent January 6th defendants for years. At his rallies, he featured a song with the January 6th defendants recorded on a jailhouse phone singing the Star Spangled Banner. He calls them hostages, says they were treated unfairly. And even rioters were attending inaugural events, including a rioter named Timothy Hale Cusinelli, who prosecutors described as a Nazi sympathizer. And he once went to work at a naval base with a Hitler mustache, compared Orthodox Jews to a plague of locusts.

And he actually posted his invite to the inauguration on social media. Wow. Where does this leave the January 6th cases?

Well, federal law enforcement said that January 6th and the attack then was an act of domestic terrorism and they launched the largest single criminal investigation in the history of the Justice Department in response. Trump has essentially undone all of that with the stroke of a pen. And for police officers who were hurt, their families, this was the worst case scenario. They are watching people who assaulted them or their family member get out of prison.

Of course, many defendants, on the other hand, are celebrating today. Jacob Chansley, the rioter many people know as the QAnon Shaman, the guy with the horns that was seen in the Capitol, he said he's going to buy some guns now that he can legally.

And then there's the larger concern I've heard from counterterrorism experts, extremism experts, that this essentially is an endorsement of political violence by the incoming Trump administration, as long as that violence is against Trump's opponents. The Proud Boys have kept a much lower profile since January 6th, but they were actually back out on the streets in D.C. on Inauguration Day. And given their history of violence, that has a lot of people worried. That's NPR's Tom Dreisbach. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thanks, Leila.

And that's a first for Tuesday, January 21st. I'm Layla Faldin. And I'm A. Martinez. Make your next listen consider this. The team behind NPR's All Things Considered goes deep into a single news story in just 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you go get those podcasts.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Anna Yukonanov, Robert Little, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, Milton Givada, and Claire Murashima. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott. Join us again tomorrow.

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It still feels a bit surreal to me that I got to spend an hour talking with filmmaker David Lynch in the last year of his life. Life is such a gift and can be enjoyed and it's all okay. Nothing to worry about, really. I'm Rachel Martin. My conversation with the legendary filmmaker David Lynch is on the Wildcard podcast, the show where cards control the conversation.