‘Arrests in New York and Miami’: Trump team plans to launch immigration raids
Incoming United States president Donald Trump’s new administration will launch a large-scale immigration raid and deportation sting in Chicago a day after being sworn into office, according to media reports.
A person with knowledge of the plans told Reuters that the operation will begin on Tuesday local time and come as part of a nationwide push to arrest people who are in the US illegally.
“We’re going to be doing operations all across the country,” the person told Reuters on Friday.
“You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”
The issue of immigration was central to Donald Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election. (Reuters: Jose Luis Gonzalez)
The person’s comments come after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that the incoming presidential administration plans to begin raids in Chicago on Tuesday.
Citing four people familiar with the planning, the newspaper said the Chicago operation would last all week, with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sending between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
The report said ICE officials would be targeting individuals who live illegally in the US and have a criminal background for minor offences like driving violations.
The government agency would also look to deport those individuals, along with any other person with them during the raids that has no legal right to live in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The immigration raids are expected to take place a day after Donald Trump is sworn into office at his inauguration event, held at the Capitol building in Washington. (Reuters: Amanda Perobelli)
The source who spoke with Reuters denied there was a special effort to move personnel to Chicago.
Mr Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Immigration was at the centre of Mr Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election.
“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Mr Trump said in January.
The incoming president is expected to mobilise agencies across the US government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, Reuters has reported.
Mr Trump is set to return to the Oval Office after being formally sworn in during his inauguration event on Monday in Washington, D.C.
The event has been moved inside of the US Capitol building for the first time in 40 years due to severely cold weather, and is expected to include a presidential parade involving marching bands inside the Capitol One Arena.
Mr Trump said he would join crowds inside the arena after he is sworn in.
Reuters
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