Trump admin to launch immigration raids on day one amid deportation push

Beginning on Tuesday, the day before the president-elect’s inauguration, Donald Trump’s top border official stated that the new Republican administration would start large operations to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

The incoming administration’s so-called “border czar”, Tom Homan, told Fox News on Saturday that he would not categorise the expected actions as “raids”.

According to him, “targeted enforcement operations are going to occur,” adding that Chicago will be one of the cities where raids will occur shortly after Trump’s second four-year term in office.

Homan also suggested that the Trump administration would focus on migrant-heavy “sanctuary cities” where city jails are located. He claimed that the government wanted to “arrest a bad guy in a county jail’s safety and security.”

Former US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Homan claimed the agency had thorough knowledge of the plans for operations and that it had targeted which homes.

He did not provide more information or provide any further details in response to reports from US media that suggested hundreds of border agents could be attacking Chicago as early as Tuesday and that New York and Miami might also be targets.

The same day as Homan’s latest statement, “We’re gonna take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens,” Homan made the same remarks. Additionally, he had stated that there would be a “big raid across the country.”

Trump has pledged to retaliate against illegal immigrants in his second presidential campaign, just like he did with his first. However, Republicans have squabbled over certain issues, including the H-1B visa issue.

Trump has promised to start “the biggest domestic deportation operation in American history” without specifying how many people will be affected.

The president-elect has promised to reinstate a program that would allow some noncitizens who were born in the US to apply for citizenship while tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum must wait their hearings in Mexico. He also intends to repeal the controversial travel ban on Muslim-majority nations from his first term.

Even local authorities who have argued they lack the resources to implement his plan or are concerned about the negative effects on their communities have been considering how to withhold funding from sanctuary cities that refuse to participate in deportations.

Immigrant rights organizations have been anticipating the administration’s plan to crack down on illegal immigrants, with some reporting “self-deportations” by those who have chosen to wait for Trump to forcibly remove them.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in Washington, DC on Saturday to protest Trump’s inauguration, as activists for women’s rights, racial justice and other causes rallied against incoming policies they say will threaten their constitutional rights during the Republican’s second term.

The pink hats that marked Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 were worn by some in the crowd as part of the much larger protest. In light rain, they made their way through downtown, past the White House, and along the National Mall, where they “People’s March” was held.