How might President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks affect immigration, asylum, border policy?

Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions have sent shock waves through the political world.

His choice of former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, for example, has been harshly criticized by members of his own party. He and others have been called out for their lack of experience leading large organizations.

But which of those nominees will have an effect on border, immigration and asylum policy, and what kinds of real-world consequences could they have on the lives of noncitizens residing in the country both illegally and legally?

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said recently that he is “very happy” with Trump’s Cabinet picks, saying that those who will work on border and immigration issues will have the border secured “by January and February next year.”

Undocumented Tarrant County residents who recently spoke to the Star-Telegram said they “live in fear” of the mass deportations Trump promised to carry out on the campaign trail.

We spoke to immigration lawyers, advocates and academics to see what they’re expecting.

‘Border czar’ Tom Homan

On Nov. 11, Trump announced he had chosen former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan to be his “border czar,” a post that will include “policing and controlling” the country’s borders, he said in a post on his social media site Truth Social.

“Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump said.

Homan was acting director of ICE during Trump’s first term. He has said that immigrants in the country without authorization should consider leaving the country voluntarily.

“For those others, the noncriminals, if you want to self-deport, I’m all for it,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity the day after he was nominated. “Because when they self-report, they can put their orders, everything in order, their family business. If they’ve got homes or whatever they can put all that in order and leave with their family all together. It makes perfect sense.”

While that option may not be necessary right now, undocumented immigrants should be preparing for all possibilities, including getting legal advice, according to Paul Hunker, a Dallas-based immigration lawyer who worked as chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“People should consult with a lawyer about what their risks are, or an organization that helps noncitizens so they can make rational decisions about what to do,” he said.

The most likely change Homan will bring is getting rid of priority deportations, Hunker said.

Currently, ICE prioritizes arrests and deportations of people who are threats to public safety or national security, and those who have entered the country recently, Hunker said.

“I think what will happen is if ICE encounters anyone who’s here illegally or who overstayed their visas, they will put those persons into removal proceedings,” Hunker said. “That’s basically what happened under Trump 45.”

Homan could also try to make it harder for people to access legal immigration benefits such as green cards, he said.

“Under Trump 45 in general, the administration made it more challenging to apply for benefits, for example, requiring more for someone to apply for their green card,” Hunker said. “The process is pretty onerous as it is now, but Trump 45 made it even harder, and I worry that some of those things will enter immigration procedures, making it more challenging for people to apply for benefits and green cards.”

Trump and Homan could also attempt to revive the Remain in Mexico program from Trump’s first administration, which forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases were processed through the system. Critics denounced the program, which forced migrants — including families, women and children — to wait out lengthy application times in dangerous parts of Mexico.

“The Mexican government would have to cooperate with that,” Hunker said. “They would have to agree to take people and have them wait in Mexico.”

Homan will work to enact an “extremist” agenda on immigration policy and border security, according to Blaine Bookey, legal director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco.

“Trump’s and Homan’s vision will sow chaos and terror in our communities and workplaces and will undoubtedly result in family separation,” Bookey said. “President-elect Trump has offered no solutions to addressing the humanitarian and operational challenges at our border and in our communities, peddling only in fear and hate.”

Citing recent polling from CNN, Fox News and the progressive think tank Data for Progress, Bookey said that a majority of Americans do not support mass deportations.

“While many Americans are undoubtedly dissatisfied with the status quo, the majority do not support mass deportations or the separation of families,” she said. “When presented with a choice, polling has found that American voters support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — and a fair and orderly asylum process — over mass deportations.”

Matt Gaetz as attorney general

Trump’s pick for the nation’s top cop has garnered fierce criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Until his resignation from the House of Representatives on Nov. 14, the Republican from Florida was under investigation for alleged sex with minors, drug use and bribery.

Gaetz could wield significant power over immigrants in the United States, as he will be in charge of the immigration courts, said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International.

His nomination is “quite worrisome from an immigrants' rights perspective,” she said.

“The Attorney General has more control over immigration than you may have been aware of,” Schaher said. “The attorney general can issue rulings that apply to all the immigration courts. … He can basically issue decisions that will affect, for example, how all asylum cases are adjudicated.”

“I think he’s really insistent on criminalizing the work of immigration advocacy,” Schacher said, citing legislation Gaetz recently introduced that sought to remove immigrant and refugee support organizations’ tax-exempt status.

And Gaetz could use Texas as “a model at the federal level,” she added, citing similar legal action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against migrant support organizations like Annunciation House in El Paso and Catholic Charities in McAllen. Paxton has said those organizations violate state law by facilitating illegal immigration.

“If you could think of that maybe done at the federal level, like across the board, that would be pretty frightening for organizations,” Schacher said.

Stephen Miller’s immigrant agenda

Trump also tapped his long-time adviser and former speechwriter Stephen Miller to serve as his deputy chief of staff for policy, which will once again put him at the helm of the president’s decision-making process on border programs.

Miller’s agenda could result in the return of family separations and beefed-up enforcement operations at places like hospitals, schools, worksites and immigration courts, Schacher said.

“He was and always has been a supporter of zero tolerance, in the sense that certainly anybody who’s in the United States illegally is eligible for deportation,” she said.

Miller could take this “indiscriminate sort of enforcement approach” from the border and bring it further into the interior, Schacher said.

“There’s only so much one can do all at once, and there are logistical limitations and foreign policy limitations on how many people can be rounded up and deported,” she said. “But this idea of doing things like worksite raids, which have not been happening during the Biden administration, is something he said he’s definitely going to do, (and) I think we should take him for his word.”

Kristi Noem and immigration enforcement

Trump tapped South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which would put her at the top of a hierarchy that includes ICE, Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Noem stands out for her lack of experience with border security and immigrant populations, Schacher said.

“I don’t think she knows very much about how a lot of things on immigration work,” she said.

With just 7,000 undocumented residents, South Dakota has one of the smallest unauthorized immigrant populations of all U.S. states, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

“I’m not sure how much contact she’s had with immigrants,” Schacher said. “There’s like an alphabet-long list of forms that USCIS bureaucrats adjudicate every day. I would not be surprised if she hasn’t seen any of them.”

Despite South Dakota’s location almost 1,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Noem sent National Guard troops from the state to the border in 2021. She may end up cooperating more with Texas’ law enforcement border efforts, like Operation Lone Star, Hunker said.

Like Trump’s other nominees, Noem possesses the characteristic the president-elect is looking for: loyalty to him and his agenda. Further, her lack of experience will likely help him get his agenda pushed through, Schacher said.

“Having someone who probably doesn’t know very much about that will make that even easier,” she said. “I think she is a yes-woman to whatever Stephen Miller essentially decides is important for the Department of Homeland Security to do.”

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