Donald Trump’s surprise win in yesterday’s US Presidential election and the Republican Party wins over the House of Representatives and the Senate, is likely to result in massive changes to the policy course of the US, reorienting the nation’s place in the world.
A Trump White House will be able to make some changes, such as on climate change and immigration, on its own. Other changes will need the cooperation of Congress. Immigration is one of the major areas in which Trump has promised to take decisive action – these changes are likely to be sweeping and swift. President Barack Obama has moved to increase the number of refugees entering the US while creating opportunities for undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. Trump has said that he intends to crack down on illegal immigration throughout the country and sharply reduce the flow of refugees.
Trump has also pledged to begin immediate construction of a wall on the border between the US and Mexico. The wall was one of the key components of his election campaign and also one of the most controversial.
The new President-Elect has also stated his intention to end the deferred action program implemented by President Obama in 2012, which protected undocumented immigrants from deportation and offered work permits to those who had arrived in the US when they were children. A broader deferred action program, which Obama announced in 2014, and that has been blocked by a legal challenge, is also likely to be permanently cancelled.