According to recent reporting from Axios, Former President Donald Trump and the favorite for the Republican nomination, if elected in 2024, is looking to implement unprecedented restrictions on immigration and the border. 

Among several of the provisions include increased ideological screenings of immigrants to prevent “Marxists” from entering, to designate drug cartels as “unlawful enemy combatants,” and to expand the “Muslim ban” to more countries.

“For those passionate about securing our immigration system ... the first 100 days of the Trump administration will be pure bliss—followed by another four years of the most hard-hitting action conceivable,” Stephen Miller, the anti-immigrant architect of Trump’s first term, told Axios.

During his time in office, Trump built part of a border wall, began stringent wealth and health tests for prospective immigrants and limited asylum. His 2025 plan however, is harsher and potentially making it harder for millions of asylum seekers to enter or stay in the U.S.

Designating drug cartels as “unlawful enemy combatants” provides a legal justification for the U.S. military to target them in Mexico. It would also significantly raise tensions between the U.S. and Mexico. 

The indicted former Commander in Chief also looks to complete his infamous border wall, grow the dangerous floating barriers in the Rio Grande, deploy the Coast Guard and Navy to create a sea blockade to stop drug smugglers, and end “birthright citizenship” for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. 

Such ideas could survive court challenges given that the Supreme Court has become even more conservative since Trump first took office in 2016. 

Trump is looking to use the Alien Enemies Act—a section of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798—to quickly deport gang members, smugglers, and criminals by claiming a border “invasion” and designating people from certain countries as “alien enemies.” 

The former President wants to make it easier to deport people and would use the FBI, DEA, and even the National Guard to locate and apprehend undocumented immigrants.

His plan would rush “people through the system, stripping due process protections from them, eliminating any access to legal services, and really transforming this into an assembly line deportation machine,” the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick told Axios.