Project 2025 seeks to change the face of Immigration Law in USA
Project 2025, a nearly 900-page document created and promoted by the Heritage Foundation, proposes the restructuring of the federal bureaucracy by centralizing power in the presidency and defines the current policies advocated by the Republican Party, which for the third consecutive time nominates Donald Trump as its presidential candidate for the November 5 elections. Titled “A Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” and hailed as a "Presidential Transition Project," Project 2025 is a document that serves as a guide of principles for a new right-wing istration, promoting measures, regulations, and proposing laws that would facilitate the implementation of rules previously controlled by existing legal mechanisms that protect the separation of federal powers, thus making it easier for a right-wing istration to implement policies considered radical even by of the Republican party.
Trump himself recognizes that Project 2025 does not appeal to a large part of the general electorate and has made efforts to distance himself from the project, claiming that he knows nothing about the proposals included in the document. The former president even recently dismissed the concerns generated by this project shortly after the convention when on July 20, according to the German news agency Deutsche Welle (DW), he indicated that his leadership does not constitute a threat to U.S. democracy, specifically denying being an "extremist," an attempt to dismiss his supposed links to Project 2025. However, the policies and promises mentioned by the former president in his re-election campaign so far, not to mention the tenor of his speech and that of his colleagues at the recent Republican convention, betray his complicity in the questioned and controversial strategy.
It is worth noting that, no matter how much Trump attempts to deny links with Project 2025, it is a document that was developed, written, and assembled by individuals close to him, many of them former officials during his first term. And it does not stop with those who served with him before. Even his newly selected vice-presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, evidently s and advocates for the principles promulgated by the project. According to VOX, Newsweek, Axios, and other media outlets, Senator Vance -prior to the convention- wrote the foreword of a book written by Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation and self-proclaimed director of Project 2025, providing further evidence of the Republican ticket’s ties to the project.
In that foreword, which will be accessible with the September publication of Roberts’ book originally titled "Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America," Senator Vance profusely praises his ideas. "Never before has a figure with the depth and stature of Roberts within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism," writes Vance. "We are now realizing that it is time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon," the senator specifies.
The book argues that conservatives need to “burn down" certain institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Education, and even the Boy Scouts of America to "preserve the American way of life."
These are all proposals echoed in one way or another in Project 2025.
Complimentary publications
During the 2024 National Convention in Milwaukee, neither Trump nor his acolytes within the Republican Party hid their intention to curb immigration and proudly proclaimed that they would implement what they proudly called "the largest deportation program in the history of the American republic." According to the party’s platform published by the Republican National Committee (RNC), under a new Trump istration the border with Mexico would be militarized; penalties for immigration violations would be increased; extreme vetting of applications submitted by non-Christians would be implemented; sanctuary jurisdictions would lose federal funding; education and professional merit-based immigration would be emphasized over family-based migration; and what is known as chain migration would be eliminated, limiting the ability of citizens or residents to petition and bring relatives to the United States. In other words, the platform indicates that, should Trump return to power, the country would return to an immigration policy very similar to – but perfected – to the so-called 'zero tolerance' immigration policy put in place during the former president’s first term, between January 2017 and January 2021.
What the Republican National Convention did not detail in its platform is the comprehensive plan for how the implementation of an openly anti-immigrant policy would be carried out. However, one only needs to review what Project 2025 says on immigration to have a glimpse of the processes regarding how such a policy would be executed more efficiently and effectively than during Trump’s first term. It complements and enhances the positions presented at the RNC Convention.
Immigration within Project 2025
Project 2025 was developed with the objective of formulating and promoting conservative public policies with a view to a new Trump term. The Heritage Foundation drafted and presented this plan to show how a conservative government would fundamentally alter the structure and function of the federal government in alignment with supposed conservative principles. Among its suggestions for a Republican istration, Project 2025 seeks to dismantle the current government bureaucracy and alter the functions of many federal departments, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and all its agencies.
It should be noted that DHS was created under a Republican istration in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The department grouped 23 federal agencies, including those involved in the immigration process that previously operated under the Department of Justice (DOJ). This includes the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (USCBP). According to the publication, under a new Republican president should propose legislation to dismantle the agency and, failing that, should be dramatically reform the agency to carry out its anti-immigration principles.
This article highlights some key points of the immigration strategy, as presented by Kenneth (Ken) Cuccinelli, a hardliner on immigration who was appointed by Trump in June 2019 as Acting USCIS Director and later, in November of the same year, Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
Who is Ken Cuccinelli?
As mentioned earlier, Project 2025 includes many authors who participated in Donald Trump’s first istration. The chapter regarding the proposals related to the Department of Homeland Security was written by Ken Cuccinelli, considered one of the most anti-immigrant voices in the Republican Party, who became nationally known for his immigration policy proposals during his short tenure in the former president’s first istration. Considered a hard-right extremist by many, including of the RepublicanParty, he was well known for anti-establishment positions prior to his appointment by Trump in 2019. In fact, The Washington Post noted that as far back as 2014, Cuccinelli encouraged a wave of conservative candidates in Republican primaries to challenge the supposed power of the established Republican apparatus, which cost him the enmity of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other less conservative Republicans. Even leaders of organizations defending immigrant rights warned at the time that Trump’s appointment of Cuccinelli “demonstrated the anti-immigrant fervor of the government, which is seeking people most consistent with their perspectives,” Angélica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), told Univision Noticias.
Upon assuming the role of acting director of USCIS, a position later found to be in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 by a federal judge, Cuccinelli proposed many controversial programs including a drastic and fundamental change to the established American doctrine that welcomes “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” a famous sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) titled “The New Colossus,” which welcomes immigrants and is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Cuccinelli’s proposal was to change the doctrine to one that welcomes “your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and will not become a public charge.” As indicated by The Wall Street Journal at the time, he pushed forward the idea that USCIS is “not a benefit agency, [but] a vetting agency.”
It is worth mentioning that after serving as acting director of USCIS, Cuccinelli was appointed later on in 2019 by Trump to serve as acting deputy secretary of DHS. This appointment was also challenged and was ruled by the Government ability Office to be illegal.
Dramatic Changes in Immigration Policy
Although Trump tries to distance himself from Project 2025, the conservative strategy presented by Cuccinelli seeks to restore many of the immigration policies created and promoted by the former president during his first term. And the main policy issue surrounding the tumultuous 2024 presidential campaign is once again the control of the United States border. More specifically, the control of the southern border with Mexico, although this time without asking Mexico to pay for the construction of the border wall. The Heritage Foundation's strategy aims for the construction of additional physical barriers, that is, completing the border wall (which was not started by Trump, but rather repaired), as well as the use of advanced technology for border surveillance.
Project 2025 also recommends the deployment of military troops to assist in domestic law enforcement related to immigration. And beyond the southern border, the document also proposes an increase in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so that its agents can carry out the location, detention, arrest, and deportation of undocumented (illegal) immigrants living in the United States.
Project 2025 also advocates for a review and restriction of asylum and refugee policies, arguing that many asylum cases are "abused" by people who do not genuinely qualify as refugees under international standards, and implies that a new istration should transfer further decision-making authority on determining whether an applicant meets the credible fear standard to officers upon the arrival of the applicant to the country, thereby giving more discretion to an immigration officer to deny an asylum application. Project 2025 further proposes ending all temporary protection (TPS) and parole programs.
It should be noted that this would imply a critical change in asylum case processing since under the current immigration process it is an immigration judge who ultimately decide whether an individual should be granted asylum. Currently, agents only have the discretion to refer cases when applicants show a credible fear of persecution if returned to their countries of origin. If such credible fear is shown, the case is forwarded to the overburdened immigration court system for processing. The proposal would appear to make it easier for officers to decline the existence of credible fear.
It is important to emphasize that these proposals from Project 2025 also coincide with the Republican National Commettee platform where the party established its intention to "close the border" with the aim of stopping what it defines as a "migrant invasion," without any reference to respecting due process. The party even prescribes "stopping" what it calls the "migrant crime epidemic," associating the migration movements - which have been recorded since 2013 - with "foreign drug cartels" and not with the causes that drive people to flee their countries.
Changes to the Legal Immigration System
Project 2025 also suggests reducing visa quotas based on family reunification (the so-called chain migration), elimination of the diversity visa program, and a greater emphasis on skills and employment-based visas. As written, it recommends a full-blown reform of the legal immigration system in order to make it more selective and merit-based, both educationally and professionally. For example, it seeks to push for legislation that establishes points system for determining whether an individual should be granted access to the U.S., a system that has already been suggested during previous immigration reform debates dating back to 2005 but always lacked bipartisan .
The project also promotes cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies for the enforcement of immigration laws, pushing for the restoration of programs contemplated in the current Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), including as outlined Section 287(g), which allows local law enforcement authorities (state, municipal, or county) to make agreements with the federal government to enforce federal immigration laws. According to ICE, in May 2024, the agency had 287(g) Agreements with 60 law enforcement agencies in 16 states whose agents were authorized and certified to perform functions as federal immigration agents ). In addition, it is important to that ICE had agreements with Warrant Service Officers (WSO) with 75 law enforcement agencies in 11 states. These WSO agreements grant police officers more limited discretionary powers to execute arrest warrants in limited cooperation agreements with ICE. It can be implied that Project 2025 would seek to reestablish and expand these programs.
'Zero Tolerance' and Populism
It is clear that the style, context and explanation of ideas presented in this 900-page document highlight the existence of a movement that bases its ideas on a long history of xenophobia, which in turn is fueled by strong doses of political populism exacerbated by a world dependent on the limited content found on social media and nourished by the lack of ability of many to gracefully handle different and complex ideas. Nowhere is this more evident than in the forward of the publication which is a classic example of far-right dogmatic discourse aimed at dividing rather than unifying people of different opinions.
One of the major concerns in immigration policy, especially for Democrats and immigrant rights advocates, is the potential return of the Trump 'zero tolerance' policy, a doctrine based on negativity whose purported reason for existence has always been argued with vitriolic language and continues to be factually unfounded. Fundamentally, it is a policy that feeds on arguments that try to create a link between criminality and immigration, promoting the myth that immigrants have increased crime rates. And it seems that it does not matter that serious studies, such as the one by renowned Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky, that demonstrates that in today’s America immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born white individuals. Conservative groups nevertheless continue to harp on the supposed impact of immigration on criminality rates, hammering it at every opportunity, including Project 2025 which calls the current immigration situation as a “lawless immigration crisis.” As Eva Illouz states in her book 'The Emotional Life of Populism,' conservative nationalism rests on four emotions: the promotion of fear, the vision of a nation based on traditions and the rejection of the stranger, relying on disgust and resentment, and a carefully cultivated love for one's own country.
One only needs to look the RNC Platform which uses labels like “migrant invasion” and “migrant crime epidemic” to see that there has been no change in rhetoric. Even its speakers, like Senator Ted Cruz, promulgated such anti-immigrant positions. He told Univision that the United States is facing “an invasion at our southern border. Not figuratively, a literal invasion, 11.5 million people have crossed our border illegally under Joe Biden,” which is simply not true. Publicly available data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contradict Cruz's version and reveal that between 2021 to date, the Border Patrol has detained 10,120,022 foreigners at the border. Of these, 6,725,389 were deported under either Titles 8 and 42.
Recommendations to Keep in Mind
There is no doubt that the possibility of a new Trump istration has many in the immigrant community worried. We will address many of these proposed changes and how to ameliorate its potential impact during our program ‘Hablemos de Inmigracion,' which airs every Wednesday on the Univision Noticias YouTube channel at 7 PM (Eastern Time).
For example, concerns regarding the potential elimination of TPS, parole, and conceivably the DACA programs has many worried. Hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and parole programs, programs that conservatives are targeting for elimination. And to the list, one can add the recently announced parole in place by the White House, which starting on August 19 will allow an estimated 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, and about 50,000 undocumented minor children of these marriages, to apply for legal permanent residence (green card).
Should Trump be elected, Project 2025 further implies that visa issuance will take longer and obtaining available legal immigration benefits will become a more complex process, which will impact many industries that depend on foreign workers, impacting many local and state economies.
Therefore, anyone who believes they may be affected or impacted by this agenda should seek advice on possible alternatives to their current status. Anyone who can request a family member and intends to do so should do it as soon as possible. And any company that depends on foreign workers and can extend or request work visas should do so before the end of the year.
In ‘Hablemos de Inmigracion,' we will be covering these and other topics of interest related to Project 2025 in the coming weeks.
