Our concerns about the second Trump Administration’s executive actions on immigration are twofold: First, the White House should employ a greater focus on illegal immigration specifically and, second, executive orders violate the principles of our republic.

As we noted in our editorials during the Biden Administration, executive orders circumvent the process in ways that poorly serve the public.

Sweeping proposals such as Biden’s student loan forgiveness plans or Trump’s plans on immigration, as we wrote about the former in August of 2022, “should go through proper, transparent debate of our U.S. House and Senate. It should have to win majorities of our directly-elected lawmakers.” If such proposals “go through the correct process of transparency and compromise perhaps some of the other problems could be corrected or at least mitigated.”

As we editorialized in March of 2023, an executive order often is “an ill-suited attempt to address the issue without congressional involvement.”

While we agree with many of the underlying positions outlined in President Trump’s executive orders on immigration and some of the positions he has taken regarding immigration during his time on the campaign trail — specifically strengthening our walls and fences on the border, hiring more Border Patrol officers to apprehend illegal immigrants and enforce immigration law, identifying which countries fail to provide enough information on immigrants to facilitate legal immigration, denying public assistance to illegal immigrants, among others — we believe some of the proposals included in President Trump’s executive orders undermine the case he and his supporters have made for years.

Orders to halt all refugee admissions and cancel appointments for would-be immigrants waiting just across our border for an opportunity to immigrate legally do not address illegal immigration — they create additional obstacles to legal immigration, a process that already is cumbersome with delays and bureaucratic excesses.

Some of the critics of Trump and his supporters have long scoffed at the notion that the concerns were truly centered on illegal immigration. The inclusion of these efforts in the executive orders will only give credibility to their skepticism.

As was often the case we made regarding Biden’s unilateral actions on student debt forgiveness, mindfulness of the checks and balances of power can, naturally, address the other problems in a proposal or series of proposals.

Many of our concerns with the Trump Administration’s actions on immigration would be addressed and corrected, of course, through taking the measures through the transparency and compromise of legislating.

Aspects that drift away from adhering to the rule of law and curtailing illegal immigration can be identified. Lawmakers and officials who have told voters that their concern — rightfully — is with illegal immigration can demonstrate a commitment to improving, not worsening, the processes for legal immigration. The debate and passage of this agenda could be a unifying opportunity to demonstrate our nation’s support for legal immigration and capacity to focus on our nation’s opposition to illegal immigration.