In one of the first acts of his second term in the White House, President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday evening cracking down on immigration and declaring a national emergency at the southern border.

One of the orders aims to end birthright citizenship, a right protected under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. Legal experts expect an immediate legal battle over the issue.

Other immigration-related orders signed Monday end a policy that allowed asylum-seekers to remain in the U.S. while they await court hearings; invoke a law from 1798 to expedite deportations; and designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist groups.

They fulfill long-running promises Trump made on the campaign trail, where he often demonized immigrants and pledged to end an “invasion” of people entering the country without legal authorization.

“Illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said during his inaugural address Monday.

The executive orders stand to have enormous impact in California, a border state where immigrants — whether they have legal status or not — contribute significantly to the state’s economy, particularly in industries like agriculture, tech, hospitality and construction.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday night that immigration raids “are going to happen,” though he did not say when.

California Sen. Alex Padilla criticized the executive actions, telling CNN that people without legal status “deserve better than the chaos that’s coming back to their families and to their communities under these directives by President Trump.”

A number of the Republican president’s orders will likely face immediate legal challenges, including from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, his Democratic counterparts in other states and immigrant rights groups.

“He’s told us what he’ll do,” Bonta said last week during a conversation with The Sacramento Press Club about Trump’s first executive actions. “Many of those things are unlawful.”

In particular, the order regarding birthright citizenship — which grants citizenship to people born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ status under the 14th Amendment — sets Trump “on a collision course with the courts,” said Kevin Johnson, a professor of law and Chicano studies at the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Trump administration officials have reportedly pointed to a line in the 14th Amendment stating people are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the government as an argument to revoke automatic citizenship.

“We’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know, and it’s just absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said Monday as he signed the order. He added “we think it may have very good grounds” to withstand legal challenges.

Johnson predicted the order would ultimately be struck down by the courts, but noted it would give Trump political points from his supporters for trying.

Trump signed the immigration-related orders in the Oval Office on Monday evening. Earlier in the day, he signed a batch of executive orders in front of supporters at Capitol One Arena in Washington to rescind Biden-era executive actions, impose temporary freezes on federal regulations and hiring, and withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate agreement.

What Trump’s immigration policies mean for California

Trump’s orders on immigration, particularly increased deportation, could dramatically affect California’s labor market and prices.

“Particularly in farm work, there’s a large portion of the labor force that is undocumented, and growers rely on undocumented labor to pick their crops and work the fields,” Johnson said. “Prices for some goods and services, especially fruits and vegetables, would go up if undocumented labor wasn’t there to pick it.”

A tighter labor market could lead to higher wages as employers try to recruit workers to fill vacant positions, Johnson said, which could then be passed onto consumers.

Immigration raids in Kern County earlier this month provide a taste of what’s to come, Johnson said.

Word of Border Patrol raids spread quickly in California's Central Valley, along with fear of deportation among immigrant communities. Many undocumented workers stayed home and kept their children home from school.

“That’s not the doing of Donald Trump, but it gives you an idea of the kind of havoc that interior enforcement through raids can bring to particular communities,” Johnson said. “I can’t overstate just how distraught, concerned and anxious people in the immigrant community are.”

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