Here's a look at the important pieces of the actions signed Wednesday:
The Wall
The biggest piece of Trump's first executive order was his long-promised wall on the border with Mexico.
The measure instructs the homeland security secretary to take "steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border," in order to "achieve complete operational control of the southern border."
The measure includes instructions to figure out funding, including what federal money sources exist now and what the administration will need to request in congressional appropriations later.
The order also calls for a study within six months on securing the southern border.
Trump has said Mexico will pay for the wall, and stood by that Wednesday, saying he would get reimbursement after building the wall with federal funds. Negotiations, he said, would begin "relatively soon."
"I'm telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form," Trump said. "We are going to stabilize on both sides of the border and we also understand that a strong and healthy economy in Mexico is very good for the United States."
The order directed agencies to conduct an analysis of all federal aid to Mexico over the past five years -- previewing Trump's vision for gaining leverage over the neighboring country.
But the order also seemed to indicate that despite Trump repeatedly insisting he meant a physical wall, there was wiggle room.
"'Wall' shall mean a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier," the order said in its definitions.
Deportation force
Both orders also sought to beef up enforcement agencies in terms of staffing.
The border security order instructed the Department of Homeland Security to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents, and the other order focused on security of the interior of the nation seeks the addition of 10,000 immigration officers.
Both, however, are "subject to available appropriations," meaning the agency will need to find funds or Congress will need to appropriate them.
The order seeks to get Border Patrol reinforcements to stations "as soon as is practicable."
The order also specifies that the additional immigration officers should be trained to perform duties including interrogating, detaining, arresting and searching for people believed to be non-citizens or non-nationals.
Detention centers
The order on border security signals there could be significant efforts to put more immigrants behind bars if they're caught illegally crossing the border, or if they're in deportation proceedings.
The order instructs the secretary of homeland security to construct or establish detention facilities near the border and staff them with asylum officers and immigration judges.
"A nation without borders is not a nation. Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders," Trump said yesterday as he signed two executive orders at the Department of Homeland Security.
"We are in the middle of a crisis on our southern border. The unprecedented surge of illegal migrants from Central America is harming both Mexico and the US and I believe the steps we will take starting right now will improve the safety in both of our countries, going to be very, very good for Mexico," Trump said.
He said the two executive orders will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs, and billions and billions of dollars.
"These two orders are part of an immigration reform we outlined during the campaign. I want to emphasise that we will be working in partnership with our friends in Mexico to improve safety and economic opportunity on both sides of the border," Trump said.
Noting that he has deep admiration for the people of Mexico, he said he greatly look forward to meeting again with his Mexican counterpart.
"I'll be doing that shortly. We will discuss close coordination on many, many important issues between our countries. This coordination includes the dismantling of cartels and keeping illegal weapons and cash from flowing out of America and into Mexico," he said.
Trump said his executive order directs federal agencies to immediately start working on construction of a border wall.
"This will also help Mexico by deterring illegal immigration from Central America and by disrupting violent cartels networks," he said.
"As I've said repeatedly to the country, we are going to get the bad ones out; the criminals and the drug deals and gangs and gang members and cartel leaders. The day is over when they can stay in our country and wreak havoc," he said.
"We are going to get them out and we're going to get them out fast and (Homeland Security Secretary) John Kelly is going to lead that wave," he added.
The other executive order, Trump said ends the policy of catch and release at the border, requires other countries to take back to their criminals, cracks down on sanctuary cities, empowers ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers to target and remove those who pose a threat to public safety.
It also includes calls for the hiring of another 5,000 border patrol officers, calls for the tripling of the number of ICE officers.
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