Trump pardons January 6 rioters and exits Paris climate agreement in slew of executive orders

Donald Trump’s administration has rescinded a memo issued under Joe Biden that curbed immigration enforcement in and around schools, healthcare facilities, churches and facilities providing disaster relief, among other locations, Fox News reports.

The decision comes as Trump administration officials vow to today begin rounding up people in the United States illegally, as part of the new president’s promise to carry out “mass deportations”. Under his administration’s new policies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are now encouraged to use “a healthy dose of common sense” when picking locations to find undocumented people.

Here’s more on the new regulations, from Fox:

The first memo, a draft of which was reviewed by Fox News, rescinds a 2021 memo by Mayorkas, which provided an expanded list of areas that are “protected areas” where ICE could not engage in immigration enforcement. It said the policy was designed to make sure enforcement did not limit “people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.”

Those areas include schools, universities, healthcare facilities, places of worship, “places where children gather,” social service establishments, food banks, religious or civil ceremonies and disaster or emergency response and relief centers.

“In our pursuit of justice, including in the execution of our enforcement responsibilities, we impact people’s lives and advance our country’s well-being in the most fundamental ways. As a result, when conducting an enforcement action, ICE and CBP agents and officers must first examine and consider the impact of where actions might possibly take place, their effect on people, and broader societal interests,” Mayorkas said in a statement at the time.

The memo issued Monday rescinded that guidance and said that common sense should be used instead.

“Going forward, law enforcement officers should continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense,” the new memo said. “It is not necessary, however, for the head of the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”

ICE agents who spoke to Fox News said they believe that rescinding the Mayorkas order is going to free them up to go after more illegal immigrants, because illegal immigrants have until now been able to hide near schools and churches and avoid arrest.

Donald Trump signed a pile of executive orders yesterday that both undid Joe Biden’s policies and took aim at longstanding constitutional rights.

Here’s a look back at what the new president did:

Among the barrage of executive orders Donald Trump signed yesterday were several targeted at the federal workforce.

The new president froze hiring for federal employees, barred diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and ordered government workers back into their offices, among other decisions.

The American Federation of Government Employee has hit back at these orders, saying they will make the government less effective. Of the rollback of DEI initiatives, the union’s national president Everett Kelley said:

Undoing these programs is just another way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests. Our nation’s military leaders have said that eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the defense department risks undermining military readiness. Programs that promote an inclusive workforce ensure that the rules are applied evenly to everyone, plus they help build a federal government that looks like the diverse population it serves.

And of the hiring freeze:

There is no legitimate rationale for slashing the size of the federal workforce. The number of federal workers has grown by roughly 6% over the past 50 years, while the US population served by the federal government has increased by 57%. Meanwhile, spending on the vast shadow workforce of federal contractors has ballooned to account for 11.4% of the federal budget – nearly $760 billion annually – while just 4.3% of the budget goes to pay federal employees.

Elon Musk is likely to be given office space in the White House complex as part of his work on the “department of government efficiency” downsizing initiative.

The Tesla chief has been tasked by Donald Trump with coming up with ways to dramatically downsize the federal government. Democrats believe this is cover for going after social safety net programs that Republicans typically target when they are in power.

The New York Times has details of Musk’s new office setup:

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is likely to be given office space in the West Wing, putting him close to President Trump as Mr. Musk steers a project that aims to cut as much as $2 trillion in government spending, two people with knowledge of the planning said on Monday.

Mr. Musk had been expected to be situated in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is in the White House complex but not in the West Wing proper. But he has for many days been asking about his level of access, signaling a desire for proximity to Mr. Trump, according to the people.

Mr. Trump had wanted Mr. Musk to have the space, one of the people said. Mr. Musk has been given a badge for the White House complex and was said to be working there on Monday. He has filled out paperwork to be brought onboard for the role and already has a government email address.

Trump officials and an official with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting project that Mr. Musk leads, did not respond to requests for comment.

A federal judge has declined to allow a small group of lawmakers to read a report detailing former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump for possessing classified documents, Politico reports.

Smith dropped charges brought against Trump in the case after he won re-election, but wrote a report outlining his evidence. The justice department under Joe Biden, had argued for its release to the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary commmitees, but federal judge Aileen Cannon has denied that request.

It’s unclear if the justice department will continue pursuing its release, now that Trump is in office.

Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in, the Senate passed legislation that could give immigration authorities new tools to go after undocumented migrants. Here’s more on the bill, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve:

The Senate has passed legislation requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, with the chamber approving its first bill of the new Congress just hours after Donald Trump took the oath of office.

The vote was 64 to 35, as a dozen Democrats joined every present Republican in supporting the Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan national.

The measure now goes to the House, which passed a slightly different version earlier this month. If the House approves the bill, as expected, it will next go to the president’s desk for his signature, giving Trump the first legislative victory of his second term.

Former acting Ice director John Sandweg added that an executive order Donald Trump signed yesterday telling the military to construct detention camps was a sign that he was serious about carrying out his campaign promise of mass deportations.

“They’re laying the groundwork for this mass deportation in a way that we haven’t seen before, including on an explicit directive for the military to start creating detention camps, which addresses one of the real resource issues that they would face if they ever carried out this – this mass deportation effort,” Sandweg told CNN.

“I can’t remember us ever seeing this in modern, you know, immigration enforcement history. Certainly not since the creation of [the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] […] He’s going to – direct the military to provide operational support to DHS, including explicitly detention camps and transportation services. But it’s the detention camps that really caught my eye because we’ve never seen detention camps in military bases.”

John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Barack Obama, said today’s expected raids will likely target undocumented immigrants who have interacted with the criminal justice system, but been able to remain in the country.

“I don’t expect what they’re going to do tomorrow operationally is that different from what the Biden administration has been doing. I think what’s going to change here is the public emphasis and the attention they draw to their operations,” Sandweg said.

Ice often targets for deportation undocumented people who wind up in jail, but Sandweg said “a certain percentage of people slip through the cracks.”

Those people will likely be prime targets for the wave of raids Tom Homan promised:

But what Ice will do is they’ll go through and look at probation records and then target those individuals and go out into the cities and make apprehensions of them when they’re at large.

What I think Ice has planned for this week is going to be a massive, what we used to call a cross-check operation, where they go out there and hit the streets looking for these individuals on probation or parole. So, in that sense it’s not going to be different than what we’ve seen historically under Biden, under President Obama, under the first Trump administration.

Immigration agents will fan out across the United States today to arrest and deport undocumented migrants, Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said in an interview late yesterday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) “is going to start doing their job and more. They haven’t been able to do the job for last four years, and now they’re going to start enforcing the law like there should be,” Homan told Fox Business Network.

He declined to say where the raids would take place or if they would target “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with immigration authorities, but did say they would be nationwide:

They’re going to do it throughout the country. We have offices throughout the country, and every Ice officer is going to be out there and enforce the law starting tomorrow morning.

The raids will follow executive orders Trump signed yesterday that implemented hardline policies intended to prevent undocumented migrants from entering the country. Here’s more:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump will announce a “massive” infrastructure initiative this afternoon.

Leavitt told Fox News the announcement will come at 4pm ET, but did not provide details.

One of the best known rioters to attack the Capitol on January 6 is Jake Angeli-Chansley, who went in shirtless and wearing horns and furs on his head.

He was pardoned by Donald Trump yesterday, and wrote the following on X when he got the news:

I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER… I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!! NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!! J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME… EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!

• Donald Trump’s second administration hit the ground running as the newly inaugurated 47th president of the US issued a blitz of day one executive orders.

• The slew of instructions targeted Joe Biden’s legacy, immigration, environmental standards, federal employment structures, trans and gender-identity rights, and Trump ordered the US to withdraw from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement.

• Trump declared a national border emergency in his immigration crackdown, and the US Senate passed a migrant detention bill hours after Trump was sworn in.

• The World Health Organization has said it regrets the announcement the US intends to withdraw from the global agency under Trump’s direction.

• Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commission’s commissioner for climate, net zero and clean growth has described the US exit from the Paris agreement as “a truly unfortunate development”. European Commission president Urusula von der Leyen has said she still supports the Paris climate agreement, and “Europe will stay the course”.

• Trump’s executive order trying to end US birthright citizenship for some children born in the US is already subject to at least two legal challenges.

• Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members drew ire from both sides of political divide.

• The Democratic party former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has described it as “shameful” and “an outrageous insult” that Trump has made pardons for those involved in the 6 January Capitol riot a top priority.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed president Trump and their relations with the US during a lengthy phone call on Tuesday.

• Elon Musk appeared to make back-to-back fascist salutes at Trump’s inauguration rally.

• That is it from me, Martin Belam, in London. I am handing over to my colleague Chris Stein in the US