Trump signs orders on border wall, immigration crackdown The president promises the two executive actions 'will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars.'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a sweeping set of immigration-related executive actions jumpstarting a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, cracking down on sanctuary cities, and directing significant resources toward swifter deportations for undocumented immigrants.

Less than a week into his presidency, Trump is following through on some of his biggest campaign plans, satisfying supporters eager to combat the flow of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. but alarming activists worried about rising xenophobia and mass deportations.


Trump, who signed the orders before around 70 people at the Department of Homeland Security around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, overall has been focusing much of his energy on executive actions during his first week, having already cranked out documents undercutting Obamacare, freezing regulations, halting most federal government hiring, reining in abortion funding overseas, and advancing the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines.

"I just signed two executive orders that will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars," Trump declared during remarks at DHS. He added, "By working together, safe borders and economic cooperation, I truly believe we can enhance the relation between our two nations, to a degree not seen before, certainly, in a very, very long time. I think our relationship with Mexico is going to get better."

The first executive order signed on Wednesday directs DHS to use existing funding to begin work on the border wall, although its completion will require an appropriation from Congress, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at the daily briefing.

"Building this barrier is more than just a campaign promise. It's a common-sense first step to really securing our porous border," Spicer said. "This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, illegal immigration into the United States. And yes, one way or another, as the president has said before, Mexico will pay for it."

Spicer did not elaborate on how Mexico will be forced to fund a project that is certain to cost billions of dollars.

In an interview with ABC News taped Wednesday afternoon, Trump said construction would begin "as soon as we can. As soon as we can physically do it."

"I would say in months, yeah," he told ABC's David Muir. "I would say in months. Certainly, planning is starting immediately."

The president also scoffed at Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto's insistence that his country will not be paying for any border wall.

“I think he has to say that. He has to say that. But I'm just telling you there will be a payment,” Trump said. “It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form, and you have to understand, what I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also gonna be good for Mexico. We wanna have a very stable, very solid Mexico.”

Trump's executive order on Wednesday, which begins the process of building the wall, also seeks to provide DHS more resources in general "to stop illegal immigration from entering the United States." It calls for the hiring of 5,000 additional border patrol agents. Spicer said the Trump administration will also seek to create more detention facilities for undocumented immigrants along the U.S. border, centers that he said would allow for swifter and cheaper deportations.

The second executive order focuses on immigration enforcement away from America's borders and calls for an end to "catch-and-release," a longstanding policy by which undocumented immigrants avoid incarceration and urges that local jurisdictions abide by federal law so that undocumented immigrants are "promptly removed."

The press secretary said that "federal agencies are going to unapologetically enforce the law, no ifs, ands, or buts." A program to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in targeting undocumented immigrants for removal will be reinstated, Spicer said, and the State Department will withhold visas for nations who refuse to accept deportees being sent back to their home countries.

Additionally, the order instructs the DHS to publicize the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants on a weekly basis, evidence of the high importance the Trump administration places on maintaining a public narrative aimed at justifying its policy.

Federal grant money will be stripped from so-called sanctuary cities that harbor undocumented immigrants from the federal government, Spicer said, although he explained the particulars of how that will work have not yet been determined.

The package sparked an immediate outcry from Democrats and immigrant advocates.

"The border wall is a lazy and ineffective strategy," said Rep. Joaquin Castro, (D-Texas).

He wasn't alone in slamming Trump's directives.

"This is nothing but sowing fear and using racism and discrimination and bigotry against our community," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the author of the DREAM Act, which would have created a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants. "As far as the wall is concerned, I suspect that a lot of Trump supporters would be just as happy with a big statue of a middle finger pointed south.”

Absent from the directives is any mention of DACA, the Obama administration program that shields some people brought to the U.S. illegally as children from the prospect of deportation. Spicer said more action related to DACA, the repeal of which remains a priority for conservatives, may come later in the week.

He also addressed fears felt by those young people, and the worries about their parents' and relative's potential deportations, and Hispanics more broadly.

“His priority is first and foremost people who are in this country that seek to do us harm," Spicer said. "The president understands the magnitude of this problem. He is a family man. He understands. He has a huge heart. He understands the significance of this problem, but he is going to work through it with his team in a very humane way to make sure that he respects the situation that many of these children are in that were brought here."

Trump made his hardline stance on immigration from Mexico and from countries with large Muslim populations a centerpiece of his campaign. He has promised to build a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and to combat terrorism by applying “extreme vetting” to immigrants from countries known to foster what he calls “radical Islam.”

But there are significant obstacles. It’s not clear how such a wall will be financed, and Trump at times has seemed opened to having parts be a fence. His allies at times have spoken of a “virtual wall.”

On the issue of “extreme vetting,” it’s been unclear what standards would be used for the practice, and critics have said such an approach could backfire and be used as a recruiting tool for would-be terrorists.

Heather Caygle and Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report.