Trump Issues Proclamation on ‘Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion’

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation entitled “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” that exercises both statutory authority alongside broad new assertions of constitutional authority to implement new restrictions on immigration.

The proclamation begins with a lengthy preamble that lays out a case for understanding the president as having not just statutory but broad inherent constitutional authority to control immigration into the United States. In doing so, it cites not just Supreme Court precedent suggesting that the control of immigration is a “fundamental act of sovereignty” that “stems not alone from legislative power” but also makes a novel argument rooted in the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause, which obligates “[t]he United States” to, inter alia, “protect each [state] against invasion[.]” Through the proclamation, Trump “determine[s] that the current state of the southern border reveals that the Federal Government has failed in fulfilling this obligation” and “declare[s] that an invasion is ongoing at the southern border, which requires the Federal Government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States.” To do so, Trump goes on to order several redundant measures pursuant not just to existing statutory immigration authorities—in particular, sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)—but also to his “express and inherent powers in Article II of the Constitution of the United States” as president.

Section 1 directs that “entry into the United States” of “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border”—a category the proclamation does not clearly define—”be suspended” until Trump determines the invasion has ceased. Section 2 bars such aliens from “invoking provisions of the INA that would permit their continued presence in the United States,” including asylum provisions. Section 3 determines that any such aliens who fail to provide U.S. officials with a sufficient medical or criminal history or other background information on or after the date of the order should be subject to the same restrictions. Section 4 expressly leans on the president’s inherent constitutional authority to “suspend the physical entry of any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States” until the president determines that the invasion has ceased. And section 5 directs relevant officials to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States on or after the date of this order….”

The text of the proclamation is available here as well as below.