Reclaiming Control: How a Sovereignty Agenda Reshapes Border, Bureaucracy, and Trade

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The administration’s tighter posture toward treaties, migration, and cross‑border obligations is a deliberate reassertion of national control, restoring decision‑making to elected offices and prioritizing domestic policy levers over multilateral forums.

A string of executive actions declared a national emergency at the southern border, tasked the Department of Defense with revised planning to give USNORTHCOM a supporting role, and ordered the revival of restrictive asylum measures while setting aggressive daily arrest and deportation targets for interior enforcement. fileciteturn0file18turn0file4 Implementation depends on closer coordination among DHS, Justice, and Defense, expanded Homeland Security task forces, and the use of National Guard forces—moves that shift responsibilities onto state and federal law‑enforcement and military chains of command.

Parallel steps withdraw or pause certain international commitments and enforcement priorities: some multilateral ties are curtailed, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement is subject to review, and foreign‑aid disbursements face temporary holds. Domestically, the administration has centralized procurement proposals under the GSA, created a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to oversee software modernization, and required independent agencies to submit rules to OIRA, creating new centralized checkpoints for regulatory actions. fileciteturn0file5turn0file12

Those measures have concrete human and institutional effects. Migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers confront narrower legal pathways and the prospect of expanded detention and removal; noncitizen populations with temporary protections face revocation risk. State and local agencies absorb operational burdens when federal priorities shift, and courts and civil‑society groups prepare challenges that can delay implementation. Businesses encounter shifting compliance landscapes when enforcement of anti‑corruption rules and procurement priorities change. fileciteturn0file16turn0file6

Reporting notes clear trade‑offs and friction points: the federal detention system lacks capacity to match ambitious deportation targets; prosecutorial resources diverted to immigration cases mean fewer resources for other federal crimes; centralizing rule review and procurement may speed certain directives while creating politicized chokepoints and implementation errors. Litigation over emergency declarations and guard deployments is already pending. fileciteturn0file4turn0file10

Near‑term steps will center on agency implementation plans with fixed reporting deadlines to OMB and OIRA, expanded interagency task forces, and judicial review of the most contested measures, all of which will determine how authority, cost, and operational strain are distributed across federal, state, and local actors. fileciteturn0file1turn0file18

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Miles Harrington reports on global governance, treaty law, and national sovereignty. A graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he previously worked with an international legal advisory panel before turning to policy journalism. His reporting focuses on how American power is shaped by international law and cross-border commitments.

Miles Harrington Executive Editor

Executive Editor – Enterprise Investigations Into Economic Policy based in New York, NY covering national policy developments.