That’s hardly surprising. Ken Cuccinelli, who served as an acting director of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services and acting deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term, authored Project 2025’s section on DHS. Tom Homan – an acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first term and now Trump’s border czar – contributed to the document.
Project 2025 called for, among other things: using active-duty military to help arrest people trying to enter the U.S. illegally, resuming mass worksite sweeps for migrants without work authorization, increasing immigration detention beds and eliminating immigration watchdog groups that allegedly obstruct ICE operations.
Trump is doing or trying to do all of the above and more. In some cases, Trump — who pledged as a candidate to carry out a mass deportation plan — has gone further than Project 2025 recommended or otherwise diverged from the document.
In its 920 pages, Project 2025 doesn’t mention birthright citizenship. But Trump sought on Day 1 to end birthright citizenship, which under a long-standing interpretation of the U.S. Constitution grants citizenship to children born in the U.S. even if their parents are living in the country illegally. So far, the courts have blocked Trump’s executive order from taking effect, although the administration has asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue.
