Trump targets cities with major deportation blitz starting Tuesday
The Donald Trump administration, as reported by "The Wall Street Journal," is preparing to initiate deportation actions against illegal immigrants, with Chicago set to be among the first targets. The "raid" is scheduled to start on Tuesday, the day after Trump's inauguration.
According to "The Wall Street Journal," Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to deploy between 100 and 200 of its officers for this action. The operation will not only cover Chicago but extend across the entire United States.
- We’re going to be doing operations all across the country. You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami. And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbours or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him - stated Tom Homan, who in the new U.S. administration is responsible for border security.
This was a key campaign issue
Immigration was one of the main topics of Donald Trump's campaign prior to the presidential elections on November 5. As early as January of last year, Trump announced that "within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history."
Reuters notes that Trump plans to mobilize federal agencies to support the action of deporting a record number of illegal immigrants. These actions will be based on experiences from his first term and will utilize all available resources to put pressure on cities that oppose such actions, known as "sanctuaries" for immigrants. Cities like New York and Chicago are among these.
