On the first day of this presidency, Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump signed a blizzard of immigration-related executive orders (at least ten), following through on his campaign promises. Many of these orders were long expected and make clear that addressing immigration will be one of the top priorities for his administration.

The next day, on Jan. 21, 2025, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, issued a new memo, which among other things, reinforced that immigration enforcement is one of the highest priorities for the DOJ. In fact, declinations must be reported using the DOJ’s “Urgent Report” guidance (a significant development and first for routine immigration matters). The guidance integrates immigration prosecution into other existing long-standing task forces such as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF, historically focused on drug trafficking and organized crime) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN, historically focused on guns) and kickstarts an effort to report immigration data held by other agencies to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Finally, and significantly, the memo notes that local officials will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice and failure to comply with immigration laws, with any declination of such prosecution reported to DOJ leadership using the “Urgent Report” framework. The memo notes the existence of a “Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group,” indicating such prosecutions and enforcement steps are likely in the near future.