The new Trump administration has been nothing if not a flurry of early activity. President Donald Trump, on Day 1, signed hundreds of executive actions. Some were mostly symbolic. Some will have implications yet to be fully determined. But others have a direct and almost immediate impact on the Southern California region, from the slew of immigration policy changes to the pardons of dozens of local people who were part of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. More on Trump’s early actions Everything Trump did in the first executive orders of his presidency Trump’s orders to end DEI programs reflect his push for a profound cultural shift Mexican border states prepare migrant shelters as Trump begins deportation campaign Can President Trump rename the Gulf of Mexico as ‘the Gulf of America’ and Denali as ‘Mount McKinley?’ Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship “Executive orders are a familiar tool in the presidential toolbox, but not all executive orders (and comparable tools) serve the same purpose,” said Matthew Beckmann, who teaches political science at UC Irvine and studies Washington politics. “Some are real policy changes that have firm and operational footing, which allows them to be implemented quickly,” Beckmann continued. “Many others, however, are more ambiguous constitutionally, legally, programmatically and operationally.” In a nutshell, executive orders are used by presidents — even as early as Day 1 — to indicate how they want the federal government to operate. They can be some of the earliest windows into how a president plans to have the government managed under his tenure. They can lay out major policies. They could request information from departments. Or they can be an apparatus to bypass Congress. Beckmann suggested that many of Trump’s initial orders were “tailored more for the media than the bureaucracy.” “None of this is to say Trump’s orders are irrelevant or unimportant, but it is to say that most of these reveals the starting point, not the finish line,” Beckmann said. Migrants walk into Mexico after being deported from the U.S. at El Chaparral pedestrian border bridge in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez) To that point, the full impact of Trump’s early actions on Southern California is yet to be figured. But here is a quick look at a few of Trump’s initial directives and the implications already felt as he is expected to visit the region Friday. Sanctuary policies vs. federal funds In one of Trump’s Day 1 orders, he tasked federal officials with evaluating whether “‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions” could lose federal funds. Specifically, the order instructs the attorney general and Department of Homeland Security secretary to “evaluate and undertake any lawful actions to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to federal funds.” California law — upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court after the first Trump administration challenged it — limits how much local law enforcement can work with federal immigration authorities on certain enforcement efforts. Authored by then-state Sen. Kevin De León in 2017, the intention is to keep local law enforcement focused on community policing “rather than rounding up hardworking, honest immigrants who in many instances assist police in solving crimes rather than committing them.” Pointing specifically to California, Trump said in a recent Fox News interview, “We’re trying to get rid of them (sanctuary policies), and we’re trying to end them. And a lot of the people in those communities don’t want them.” Trump said he “might” have to “cut off their money,” adding that sometimes that is “the only thing you can do.” Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a member of the Budget Committee, said legislators are “certainly keeping an eye on everything that President Trump does and says.” “We also want to continue to remind President Trump that there are Republicans as well as Democrats here in the state of California, and it should not be a partisan issue,” Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, said when asked about Trump’s order. “He should not put strings on any federal funding obligations for any city or state, including the state of California.” Last month, the Los Angeles City Council adopted a sanctuary city ordinance that restricts resources and personnel from being used to help federal immigration enforcement efforts. It was passed unanimously. “Our law enforcement policies are based on how best to keep Angelenos safe,” said Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Huntington Beach officials, notably, declared the Orange County city a “non-sanctuary city” earlier this week. Mayor Pat Burns said the designation is meant to be “a signal to would-be criminals, do not come to Huntington Beach.” Restaurants still recovering from COVID The restaurant and food industries are already feeling the effects of Trump’s promises of mass deportations, said Lilly Rocha, the CEO and executive director of the Latino Restaurant Association. And those are industries that still haven’t fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many restaurants and catering businesses and venues had to shutter their doors. “We just want a plan,” Rocha said. “There are a lot of businesses that depend on Latino labor, and if they have these sorts of disruptions without a plan, I feel like the entire industry could break.” “We’re on the same page as the adminsitration in regards to crime,” said Rocha. “But we want to work with the administration to have a better plan in place so that the entire restaurant industry doesn’t collapse.” People, many of whom aren’t criminals or even wanted by police, Rocha said, are skipping work, too scared to show up to their jobs. And when workers don’t show up, it’s not just the restaurant industry that feels the impacts, Rocha noted. Those employees will need to be dependent on other means to bring in money or resources and will put stress on systems like food banks. “It definitely is already creating a cascade effect, a snowball effect, for sure,” said Rocha. “People are scared.” Floating an old water plan As Southern California continues to grapple with catastrophic wildfires, Trump has continued to float withholding federal recovery aid. “I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down” from the Delta region, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in his first television interview since he took office this week. Sign up for Down Ballot, our Southern California politics email newsletter. Subscribe here. Trump issued a directive on Monday to the secretaries of commerce and interior to work with other agencies to “route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” “The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the state of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there, and why this plan must immediately be reimplemented,” the memorandum said. The order reinstates plans put forth during his first administration that the state sued to block. But Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources, has suggested Trump’s plan won’t actually alleviate water issues in Southern California. Trump’s plan “has the potential to harm Central Valley farms and Southern California communities that depend upon water delivered from the Delta, and it will do nothing to improve current water supplies in the Los Angeles basin,” Nemeth told CalMatters. Militarization of the border Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border upon taking office, and on Wednesday, the Department of Defense said it was deploying 1,500 active duty service members to assist troops already doing enforcement operations in the area. That includes 500 Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton’s I Marine Expeditionary Force to “carry out directed missions called for by the president to secure the border and protect and defend the territorial integrity of the United States,” according to IMEF officials. Staff writer Erika I. Ritchie and The Associated Press contributed to this report.  Related Articles News | Trump orders release of JFK, RFK and MLK assassination records News | Hegseth told senator he paid $50,000 to woman who accused him of 2017 sex assault News | Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances News | The Senate confirms John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA, giving Trump his second Cabinet member News | Senate advances Pete Hegseth as Trump’s defense secretary, despite allegations against him