The 47th president of the US, Donald Trump, has signed over 200 executive orders on his first day back at the White House.

Executive orders carry the weight of law but can be overruled by subsequent presidents or the courts. They are written by the president to the federal government and do not require congressional approval.

Here are the headline executive orders made public after being signed on day 1:

Immigration

• Declared a national emergency at the border.
• Moved towards revoking automatic citizenship for US-born children of immigrants in the country illegally.
• Suspend the US refugee resettlement programme for four months.
• Closing the border – the military has been ordered to “seal the borders”.
• Declared drug cartels and international gangs as foreign terrorist organisations.
• Re-implemented his “Remain in Mexico” policy – returning non-Mexican asylum seekers across the border to await hearings.
• Shut down CHNV, a major immigration initiative which allowed illegal border crossings.
• Death penalty reinstated – this should be used on and includes any “capital crime committed by an alien illegally present in this country” and anyone convicted of murdering a law enforcement officer.
• Ended the practice of “catch and release”, a policy that allows migrants to live in US communities while they await their hearings.