By Steve Holland and Julia Edwards Ainsley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump is preparing to begin taking executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to roll back policies of outgoing President Barack Obama and implement parts of his plans to crack down on immigration and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Trump, a Republican who was elected on Nov. 8 and will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, is poised to wield one of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, for executive actions that can be implemented without the input of Congress.
“He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you’re going to see that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week.
The top items on the agenda for Trump, who has presided over a sprawling business empire but has never before held public office, mirror the populist pledges that fueled his election victory: immigration curbs and job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector, Spicer said.
“It’s just frankly a question of sequencing,” he said, declining to give details about the president-elect’s upcoming executive actions.
Trump’s advisers vetted more than 200 potential executive orders for him to consider signing on healthcare, climate policy, immigration, energy and numerous other matters but it was not clear how many orders he will approve, according to a member of the Trump transition team who was not authorized to talk to the press.
Trump also is expected to impose a federal hiring freeze and reverse some environmental protections.
Obama, a Democrat ending eight years as president, made frequent use of his executive powers during his second term in office, when the Republican-controlled Congress stymied his efforts to overhaul immigration and environmental laws. Many of those actions are now ripe targets for Trump to reverse.
BORDER WALL
Trump is expected to sign an executive order in his first few days to direct the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico, one of several immigration-related steps his advisers have recommended.
That includes rescinding Obama’s order that allowed more than 700,000 people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in the country on a two-year authorization to work and attend college, according to several people close to the presidential transition team.
It is unlikely Trump’s order will result in an immediate round-up of these immigrants, sources told Reuters. Rather, he is expected to let the authorizations expire.
The issue could set up a flash-point with Obama, who told reporters on Wednesday that he would weigh in if he felt the new administration was unfairly targeting these immigrants.
Trump also is expected to announce more specific plans to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and actions to limit the entry of asylum seekers from Latin America.
Advisors to Trump expect him to put restrictions on people entering the United States from certain countries until a system for “extreme vetting” for Islamic extremists can be set up.
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump had proposed banning non-American Muslims from entering the United States but his executive order regarding immigration is expected to be based on nationality rather than religion.
Another proposed executive order would require all Cabinet departments to disclose current work being done in connection with Obama’s initiatives to curb carbon emissions to combat climate change and halt the work until further directed.
Trump is expected to extend prohibitions on future lobbying imposed on member of his transition team in his first days in office.
(Additional reporting by David Sheperdson, Susan Heavey, David Alexander, Doina Chiacu, Ayesha Rascoe, Ginger Gibson, Mike Stone, Emily Stephenson; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Will Dunham; Editing by Will Dunham)