By Karina Tsui, Julia Vargas Jones, Priscilla Alvarez and Norma Galeana, CNN
(CNN) — It’s been six months since Nedi, a 35-year-old Venezuelan mother of two, set off on a treacherous journey through the Darien Gap to get to the United States.
With the hope of eventually settling in Miami, Nedi and her family arrived in San Diego eleven days ago after successfully crossing into the US with the help of the CBPOne app –– a tool that allows migrants to share information and plan interviews with immigration authorities in advance of reaching the US border.
But on Monday, as President Donald Trump was sworn into office, US Customs and Border Protection announced CBPOne would lose its scheduling functionality and all future asylum appointments would be cancelled.
This has left thousands of migrants –– some of whom helped Nedi get to where she is –– anxious and in limbo.
“I left behind friends and family who didn’t make it, and we don’t know what will happen,” she told CNN. “We’re worried about not being able to stay, about being sent back.”
Since running for re-election, Trump has vowed to clamp down on immigration and undo Biden-era policies that he said were too permissive and blamed for allowing a large influx of undocumented immigrants.
The president on Monday signed executive orders that would give the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency more freedom to conduct enforcement actions in sensitive areas, expand the pool of undocumented immigrants subject to fast-track deportation and put an end to birthright citizenship –– a move that has received fierce pushback from constitutional experts and Democratic-led states and cities, which have already challenge the measure in courts.
CNN teams in touch with local officials in several cities say no large-scale actions have taken place so far, while other sources say federal immigration authorities are still waiting for additional guidance and have largely been relying verbal communication from headquarters.
These new policies, however, begin to paint a picture of how the Trump administration plans to tackle immigration and carry out an ambitious deportation operation. Here’s what we know:
Agents have greater latitude, White House border czar says
White House “border czar” Tom Homan told CNN targeted enforcement operations by ICE were already happening, but this time, he argued, agents have greater latitude.
“The gloves are off,” he said repeatedly since Trump announced his appointment right after winning the November election
Like under the Biden administration, ICE teams are continuing to carry out routine enforcement operations –– arresting and detaining public safety and national security threats nationwide. Agents will identify and target an individual or individuals for arrest, sometimes taking a team for safety.
A key difference now, however, is that if ICE targets a criminal and that person is with another undocumented immigrant, they, too, could be arrested.
Trump’s new policy would also allow ICE to conduct enforcement actions in or near sensitive areas like schools and churches –– places that, under the Biden administration, would require more steps before authorities could initiate arrests.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” acting Homeland Security secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a statement.
Trump officials also expanded a procedure to speed up deportations, to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US who cannot prove they’ve lived in the US continuously for two years or more.
The fast-track deportation procedure, known as “expedited removal,” allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge. In doing so, the administration is broadening its powers to deport undocumented immigrants.
The end of ‘catch and release’
Trump has repeatedly criticized what Republicans call “catch and release,” referring to a practice of provisionally releasing migrants into the US while they wait for their immigration court date.
On Monday, Trump said during his inaugural address: “I will end the practice of catch and release.”
US Customs and Border Protection has since been directed to hold migrants in custody and not release them, even if that means they’ll keep them longer, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. The aim is to swiftly remove those who aren’t eligible for asylum.
On Tuesday morning, CBP informed Catholic Charities of San Diego, a non-profit that provides shelter, food and immigration services to migrants, it will no longer be releasing migrants to their care, the organization’s CEO Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor told CNN.
Pajanor said the federal agency only provided an explanation that “policy has changed at the federal level.”
Since 2021, the Catholic Charities has been working with CBP, ICE and the port-of-entry to provide shelter and care to migrants who are released to their care.
The non-profit organization was receiving an average of 200 to 300 migrants daily, Pajanor said, and now more than 200 migrants in their care are facing uncertainty.
“We have a lot of refugees here and they’re all panicking. They’re very fearful,” Pajanor said.
CNN has reached out to the CBP along with ICE for comment.
Policies won’t deter illegal immigration, but will make journeys more unsafe, experts say
In the early hours of Tuesday, Danielle Cosmes, with the American Friends Service Committee, said she was not surprised to see eight migrants near the border wall waiting to be taken to a detention center by Customs and Border Protection agents.
Cosmes runs an aid tent adjacent to the border wall that shares information about immigration law and distributes water, hot beverages, and food to arriving migrants while they wait to be processed.
On Tuesday, no migrants accepted donations or wanted to speak to Cosmes.
The announcement of executive orders on immigration does not mean organizations will see immediate effects on the ground, she said.
“Maybe we will, maybe we won’t, but what I am concerned for the most is the effect it will have on migrant communities. The fear it is instilling both on migrant communities that are already in the US and have been living here and are essential part of the communities and people who are in transit attempting to arrive to the United States,” Cosmes said.
“What I can anticipate for sure is fear and uncertainty, because that is essentially what they are being made to feel.”
Cosmes also warned of a potential increase in injuries and fatalities of people attempting to cross in more remote areas of the US-Mexico border. “That’s what we can expect when policies and executive orders are taking away opportunities for safe entries and eviscerating the asylum system.”
City authorities, schools refuse to heed to intimidation
Amid violent winds and bitterly cold temperatures, members of the Chicago Teachers Union have been preparing to protect their students for changes to immigration policy –– training staff at their schools on how to respond to an ICE raid.
“We started attending know your rights training so that we could know how to defend ourselves and our students, if anyone tries to, if ICE tries to communicate with us or potentially detain somebody,” Erin, a teacher at Chicago Public Schools, told CNN affiliate WLS.
Erin said there are nearly a dozen teachers in her “sanctuary team” –– a group in charge of defending students if threatened.
“I want our families to feel confident they can send their children to school; we are not going to interact with ICE,” Chicago Public Schools CEO Martinez told WLS.
The city’s police department has also spoken out about its response to policy changes, telling WLS that it “does not assist federal immigration authorities with enforcement action solely based on immigration status.”
“Additionally, CPD does not document immigration status and does not share such information with federal authorities,” the Chicago Police Department added.
Authorities in other cities like Las Vegas have similarly weighed in on the policy change.
Speaking to KLAS, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said his police department will not partake in mass deportation “roundups” as outlined in President Trump’s new immigration policies.
McMahill, who hopes for a bipartisan effort to secure the US border told KLAS that “roundups out in the community and those kinds of things, that’s not my job. I have too much to do.”
“I don’t think that with the volume and magnitude of the problem that they’re going to make as much progress on it as they would like to unless they first focus in on stopping people from coming across the borders,” he said.
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