Donald Trump inauguration: Trump vows harsh limits on immigration on first day in office

US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) vowed to impose severe limits on immigration on his first day in office, promising to fulfill his campaign promise at a packed rally before he would take the oath on Monday.

Speaking at the Make America Great Again (MAGA) ‘victory rally’ at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC, Trump said “the invasion of our country” would come to a halt” after he swore in at noon on Monday.

“We are going to stop the invasion of our borders. We are going to reclaim our wealth. We are going to unlock the liquid gold that’s right under our feet,” Trump told thousands of his roaring supporters.

‘WILL SECURE OUR BORDERS’, SAYS TRUMP

Trump said his administration would quickly re-establish control of the country’s borders and stressed “we will begin the largest deportation exercise in American history”. An operation of that scale, which will see the removal of thousands of illegal immigrants, however, would likely take years and be hugely costly.

“Before this, nobody could even think of open borders, prisons, mental institutions, men playing in women’s sports, transgenders for everyone. We will expel every illegal alien gang member and migrant criminal operating on American soil,” he said.

A source familiar with the planning told news agency Reuters that border security will figure prominently in Trump’s first executive orders on Monday, which are likely to classify drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”, declare an emergency at the US-Mexico border and move toward reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy which forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US court dates.

TRUMP TAKES CREDIT FOR GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL

Trump took credit for the Gaza ceasefire deal to halt the 15-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and claimed that the war would not have happened if he were the President at that time.

“We achieved an epic ceasefire agreement as a first step towards lasting peace in the Middle East. This agreement could have happened only as a result of our historic victory in November. The first hostages have just been released. Biden said that they made the deal, well. First of all, it (Gaza war) would never have happened if I were the President,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas in Gaza after 471 days in captivity since the Palestinian group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. In response, Israel freed 90 Palestinian prisoners languishing in its jails.

TRUMP SAYS US WILL OWN 50% OF TIKTOK

During the rally, Trump also took credit for bringing TikTok back online and said the US would do a “joint venture” to save the Chinese-owned video-sharing app alongside bidders to buy the company.

“Before even taking office, you are seeing results no one expected to see. Everyone is calling it the ‘Trump effect’. Its you. You are the effect. As of today, TikTok is back. I did a little TikTok thing. We need to save TikTok because we have to save a lot of jobs. We don’t want to give our business to China. I agreed to approve TikTok on the condition that the US will own 50 per cent of TikTok,” he said.

TikTok said on Sunday that it restored its services in the US after Trump said he would revive access to the China-based video-sharing app through an executive officer after taking office on Monday.

Trump’s announcement came hours after Google and Apple removed the Chinese app, currently owned by ByteDance, from its digital stores following a US Supreme Court order upholding a federal law that required the firm to sell its operation to an approved American buyer.

At the rally, Trump took a dig at outgoing President Joe Biden and said tomorrow “would end the reign of a failed, corrupt political establishment”.

“We are going to make our country greater than ever before. We are going to take back our country tomorrow at noon. The curtain closes on four long years of American decline and we begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride,” he said.

The event marked Trump’s first major address in Washington since his speech on January 6, 2021, that preceded the storming of the US Capitol by an angry mob of his supporters. Trump has said he will pardon many of the more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the attack.

(with inputs from agencies)

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