President Donald Trump's administration has directed U.S. prosecutors to criminally probe local officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts, intensifying a sweeping crackdown that Trump launched the day he took office.

Trump's acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, told Justice Department staff that state and local authorities must cooperate with the immigration crackdown and federal prosecutors "shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution," Reuters reported citing a memo.

The Justice Department could also challenge laws that complicate the effort, Bove wrote.

The policy was issued as the new Republican administration prepared to step up policing of illegal immigration in cities with significant migrant populations, setting up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago that limit cooperation with such efforts.

The new memo underscored how Trump's Justice Department may try to back his immigration agenda by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state officials. It is the latest in a series of executive actions Trump has taken to curb illegal immigration, his top priority.

During Trump's first 2017-2021 term in office, many Democratic officials refused to cooperate with his enforcement efforts, and some vowed to defy him again.

"We know that we don't have to participate in immigration enforcement activities," Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on CNN.

But resistance in the party is not monolithic this time. In the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday 46 Democrats -- one-fifth of their number -- joined 217 Republicans to pass legislation that would require immigrants who are in the country illegally to be held for deportation if they are accused of theft. The bill was named for Laken Riley, a Georgia woman who was killed by an illegal immigrant who had a prior record of shoplifting.

It has already passed the Senate with Democratic support and now heads to Trump's desk to be signed into law.

"The American people want us to do something about the border and I think we’d be hard-pressed to not say that we have to deport criminals," Representative Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat who voted for the bill, told Reuters.

TROOPS TO BORDER

Trump has issued a broad ban on asylum and taken steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil. A U.S. official said on Wednesday the military would dispatch 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border on Trump's orders.

The administration has rescinded guidance from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden that had limited immigration arrests near schools, churches and other sensitive places. Trump has also expanded immigration officers' power to deport migrants who cannot prove they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years.

Trump has separately taken aim at federal diversity programs, ordering agencies to put officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs on leave by Wednesday and to shut down DEI offices by the end of the month.

The swift actions signal Trump's intention to fulfill many of his culture-war campaign promises by pushing the limits of executive power even further than he did during his first term.

Americans are sharply divided on Trump's plans for mass deportations. A new Reuters/Ipsos survey showed 39% agreed that "illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings," while 42% disagreed and the rest were unsure.

Some 46% of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy, while 39% disapproved. Most respondents who backed mass arrests identified as Republicans, while most who did not were Democrats.

The poll, which surveyed adults nationwide on Jan. 20-21, found 58% of respondents agreed that the U.S. should "dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border," while 22% disagreed.

TARGETING SANCTUARY CITIES

State and local officials who resist or obstruct immigration enforcement could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the Justice Department memo.

Prosecutors who opt not to file criminal charges will need to explain their reasoning to superiors, the memo said.

The department this week also reassigned close to 20 career officials, transferring some to a new unit aimed at stopping sanctuary cities from resisting Trump's immigration plans, two sources said.

Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with "sanctuary" laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.

In Mexico, authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for a possible influx of deported Mexicans.

Donald Trump declared there are “only two genders” as he was sworn in Monday as the 47th president of the United States, returning for a second term in office.

“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders -- male and female,” he said, marking the first mention of gender in an inaugural address.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said minutes after he was sworn in during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, the first since 1985, when Ronald Reagan moved the ceremony indoors due to exceptionally frigid temperatures.

In his inaugural address, Trump also used words such as “Manifest Destiny,” "National Emergency," "Colorblind," "Sanctuary," "Horrible," "Suburban," “Betrayal” and “Weaponization” for the first time in history.

Following the inauguration, the president is slated to depart the Capitol and head to the nearby Capital One Arena, where he will address supporters during a rally that will also feature a presidential parade.

Donald Trump sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday at the Capitol Rotunda by Chief Justice John Roberts.

At the ceremony, Trump vowed to make America "greater, stronger and more exceptional" than ever before.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump's biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.

The inauguration ceremony took place indoors due to the cold temperatures in Washington, DC, unprecedented in decades.

In the meantime, Trump signed a barrage of executive orders following the ceremony.

The new orders include tougher anti-immigration measures as well as pardons for people convicted for their role in the Capitol Hill attack on January 6, 2021.

Ahead of his inauguration, Trump met at the White House with the outgoing president Joe Biden – a courtesy the Republican had denied his Democratic successor in 2021.

Earlier, Trump had attended a church service. Alongside, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai and Apple's Tim Cook, some of the most powerful tech moguls in the world, attended the service.

Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president.