Trump Reprises One of the Worst Things He Did in His First Term

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Donald Trump won the presidency in part on promises to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records. But his earliest executive orders—trying to undo birthright citizenship, suspending critical refugee programs—made clear he wants to attack legal immigrants, too. In our new series, Who Gets to Be American This Week? , we'll track the Trump administration's attempts to exclude an ever-growing number of people from the American experiment.

One of President Donald Trump's defining moments during his first term was a travel ban against Muslim-majority countries. Now in his second term he's resumed that policy, introducing a new travel ban on Wednesday night that bars nationals of 12 countries from entering the US starting on Monday. That announcement came on the heels of the administration's assault on international students, banning them from enrolling at Harvard University. The State Department is also looking to revoke Chinese students' visas while also pausing all upcoming interviews for international students scheduled to study here in a few short months.

Meanwhile, the government's legal defense has taken a beating in the case of the migrants illegally deported to El Salvador—and, separately, a Maryland man who was wrongfully sent there is now headed back to the US

Here's the immigration news we're keeping an eye on this week:

After ordering the secretary of state to come up with a list of countries that pose national security threats to the US, Trump made it official: We have a new travel ban. Starting on Monday, people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will be restricted from entering the US Nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will also be partially restricted from entering the country.

The order says that admitting people from these countries would be “detrimental” to US interests for varying reasons: It claims they have “deficient” vetting and screening information of their citizens, “significant” terrorist presence, and a high “visa-overstay rate,” and they do not cooperate when the US government deports their nationals. On Truth Social, the president shared a video explaining the new travel ban and cited the recent attack in Colorado, where an Egyptian man threw Molotov cocktails at people participating in a march for Israeli hostages. The suspect was an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa but had applied for asylum. (Egypt is not on the travel ban list). Immigration authorities also arrested his wife and five children with the intention of deporting them—all of them are Egyptian nationals who were part of the same asylum application—but a federal judge has temporarily blocked that move .

There are some exceptions, including green card holders, dual citizens, certain athletes traveling to the US for the World Cup and Olympics, Afghans who worked for the US government and are holders of a special immigrant visa, and close relatives of US family members and diplomats. Taken all together, the American Immigration Council estimates the 19 countries listed in the travel ban have populations of over 475 million people . They are predominantly Muslim and African, reminiscent of Trump's 2017 travel ban, which was challenged in court before the Supreme Court ultimately let a revised version stand .

“The latest travel ban will have devastating consequences for tens of thousands of people,” said Elora Mukherjee, clinical law professor at Columbia University and director of the school's Immigrants' Rights Clinic. “Resulting in family separations, harming refugees and asylum-seekers, and throwing the lives of prospective international students who intended to study in the US into disarray.”

It's been more than two months since over 260 immigrants were accused of being members of foreign gangs, forced onto planes and summarily deported to El Salvador , with no notice, evidence, or court hearing. The Trump administration has been defending their deportation in a messy legal battle that took a new turn this week: US District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered the federal government to offer each deportee a court hearing.

The Trump administration deported these men within roughly 24 hours of the president signing an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act . Though these men are no longer on American soil, Boasberg's most recent order grants them class-action certification so they can still sue the Trump administration over violations of their due process rights. That's significant because throughout this legal battle, the Trump administration has argued the men are completely under the custody of El Salvador now and the US government's hands are tied.

Boasberg acknowledged that but affirmed that none of the plaintiffs were granted habeas corpus —a Constitutional right allowing anyone to contest the legality of their detention—before being shuttled on to a plane and deported to El Salvador, so the federal government must “fix its legal wrongs.” Even the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had violated their due process rights and declared that immigrants are entitled to them under the Fifth Amendment.

Boasberg's order will force the Trump administration to come before a judge with any and all evidence they have indicating that each deportee is in fact a member of a foreign gang. (Court documents indicate the evidence is nothing short of thin .)

Then on Friday, another big development dropped: ABC News reported that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man the Trump admitted administration was deported in error to El Salvador, was on his way back to the US He's been at the heart of the Trump administration's legal battle over the Alien Enemies Act, with the Supreme Court ordering the federal government to “facilitate” his release from El Salvador's custody.

That hard-fought moment arrived Friday, but at the same time a two-count indictment was also revealed against Abrego Garcia. It alleges that he participated in a conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants through the US, though Abrego Garcia has not yet responded to the new charges.