Trump pushes new bill making it illegal for future presidents ‘to open the border again’
DALLAS — President Trump is floating a new bill that would make it illegal for future presidents “to open the border again,” he announced during a speech at the Republican midterm convention.
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The president proposed the legislation under the title “No Invasion of Our Country Act” on Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallasm — one of several new policies he’s set to unveil ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“We will make it legally impossible for any future president to destroy our country by having the right to open the border again,” Trump said.
It’s unclear whether the bill could be taken up before the midterm elections on Nov. 3, as several of the president’s signature bills, including the GOP’s voter ID bill, have yet to pass both chambers of Congress.
Comprehensive immigration reform legislation hasn’t passed the House and the Senate since the 1990s.
Former President Joe Biden signed executive orders reversing Trump’s first-term border policies — which were reversed back when the 45th president returned to the White House in January 2025.
Those included actions that declared a national emergency at the southern border and implemented policies to swiftly detain and deport migrants who entered the US illegally.
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Republicans harshly criticized Biden’s so-called “catch and release” policies, which set asylum seekers free inside the country while awaiting their immigration hearings.
Under the 46th president, more than 8 million migrants came into the US.
Scenes of disorder on the southern border and heinous crimes committed by those who had entered during Biden’s term helped spur Trump’s return to the White House during the 2024 campaign.
Since then, daily arrests on the border have plummeted more than 90% and none have been released into the nation.
Trump’s first piece of legislation he signed in his second term, the Laken Riley Act, was named for a Georgia nursing student murdered by a Venezuelan national who entered the US illegally.
The law forces migrants charged with burglary, theft, assault of law enforcement officers or violent crimes to be detained by the feds, closing a loophole that had allowed Riley’s killer to evade apprehension.
Congressional Republicans also passed tens of billions of dollars of funding via a budget reconciliation bill last year to construct more border wall and fund additional federal immigration enforcement.
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