The past decade has reshaped American life and culture, with a global pandemic, shifting identity concerns, and changing work arrangements making work and life look new. With President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House and immigration issues at the forefront of the national consciousness, the end of 2024 resembles the end of 2016 in many ways.

“We expect that under the Trump administration … the border will be closed almost immediately,” said Jorge Lopez, shareholder of Littler Mendelson and president of the law firm’s immigration and global mobility department, during a pre-election conference. The Littler webinar was held on October 30. An immediate, stricter approach to immigration is likely to affect sectors like construction, hospitality and manufacturing, he said.

Lopez — with Jim Paretti, Littler shareholder and former lead attorney for U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Acting Chairman Michael Lotito, co-chairman of Littler’s Workplace Policy Instituteand Shannon Meade, executive director of the Workplace Policy Institute, shared a series of other predictions about how President-elect Trump might act on jobs issues in his first days in office.

1. Immigration raids will be back on the table.

Immigration reform will be “a priority,” Meade said.

At the construction site, a second Trump term will likely turn to “supply-side immigration enforcement” at the construction site, Lopez said — that is, raids over where government officials arrive at a site with the intention of arrest undocumented workerswill probably be reused. The Biden administration, in contrast, has used “demand-side enforcement,” Lopez said, characterized by a central concern over “whether or not an employer intentionally hires undocumented workers.”

On the immigration front, there will also likely be a big increase in I-9 audits, he said. There were about 12,000 I-9 audits during Trump’s final year in office, compared to about 400 during Biden’s final year, Lopez noted.

2. Agency chairs will be replaced.

The White House has limited control over agencies, Paretti noted, with commissioners and board members protected for a cause. President Trump will, however, be able to replace the president – ​​a step he will likely take immediately.

“Obviously, on day one, a Trump administration would appoint a new chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, and it will almost surely be Marvin Kaplan, because he will be the only Republican member in office,” Paretti said. “Similarly, at the EEOC, they are, presumably, appointing Commissioner Andrea Lucas, who is the only Republican commissioner serving at the agency at this time.”

Although leadership will likely change hands at multiple agencies, these chairs could still find themselves serving as minority members of their own commissions, such as at the NLRB and the EEOC.

3. Regulatory activity will slow significantly.

Between the new overtime rule, the non-compete rule, and the independent contractor rule – just to name a few – employers have faced a flurry of activity at the NLRB, EEOC and at the U.S. Department of Labor over the past year. While not all proposed rules have been successful in court, agencies have in some cases continued to address challenges and court decisions.

“I think the first thing the Trump administration is doing is rejecting the appeal and withdrawing the appeal,” Paretti said of the ongoing challenges. “We’ve seen this happen in other transitions – including, and this is why I think it’s worth noting for the record, two important Biden regulations, both on white-collar overtime and on independent contractor status, sought to repeal and replace rules that the Trump administration itself had issued.

Paretti specifically noted that under EEOC Chairman Lucas, some of the less popular Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations could potentially be clawed back. “She has made no secret of her displeasure or concerns with the final regulations issued by the EEOC,” he said.

4. Limits to DEI could be put in place.

DEI is one area where there will be major change under a second Trump term, Paretti said.

“We saw under the (first) Trump administration an executive order to ban or limit certain concepts in diversity and inclusion training. (…) This was repealed by the Biden administration. This decree was challenged in court,” he said. “But I would say in the intervening years, certainly on the Republican side, there’s been no waning of interest here or anything. It’s kind of been emphasized a little bit more.