'Just as quickly as they came': Trump announced the beginning of a mass deportation of illegal immigrants

On the evening of Monday, June 17, US President Donald Trump tweeted that US immigration agents are planning mass deportations of illegal immigrants starting "next week."

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“Next week, ICE will begin the process of removing millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States illegally,” Trump wrote, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “They will be expelled as quickly as they came,” the president is quoted as saying. The Washington Post.

As a rule, large-scale operations to forcibly expel illegal immigrants through ICE forces are kept secret so as not to jeopardize their execution and the agents themselves. In 2018, Trump and other high-ranking officials threatened the mayor of Oakland, California, with criminal prosecution for warning city residents of immigration raids.

Trump and his senior immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, pushed National Security officials to arrest and expel thousands of families whose deportation orders were quickly approved by the Department of Justice as part of a plan known as a “rocket”.

In April, ICE Acting Director Ronald Vitiello and Head of the Department of Homeland Security Kirsten Nielsen were dismissed because they decided not to implement Trump’s plan, expressing concern about his preparation, effectiveness and possible public outrage due to photos of migrant children taken into custody or separated from their families.

On the subject: In Texas, a teacher was fired because of a request to Trump to deport illegal pupils

Vityello was replaced by former FBI and border patrol officer Mark Morgan, who impressed the president with his statements in favor of harsh coercive measures against immigrants.

In the first two weeks of work at ICE, Morgan publicly announced that he plans to strengthen domestic measures and seek deportation orders for families in order to ensure the integrity of the country's legal system.

“The next challenge will be domestic enforcement,” Morgan told reporters June 4 in Washington. “We will be following up with individuals who have gone through the due process and received final deportation orders.”

“This will impact families too,” he said, adding that ICE agents will treat arrested parents and children “with compassion and humanity.”

US officials, aware of the preparations, said the other day that the operation was not inevitable, and representatives of ICE 17 June said they did not know about the president’s intention to publicize the agency’s plans on Twitter.

A large-scale operation of the type discussed requires hundreds—perhaps thousands—of agents and support personnel, as well as weeks of intelligence gathering and planning to verify the addresses and possible locations of individuals to be arrested.

The presidential statement that ICE will deport "millions" also contradicted the real personnel and budgetary problems of the agency. The number of ICE arrests has been falling in recent months: a lot of agents are busy with a record influx of migrant families across the southern border with Mexico.

A family arrest plan is considered more delicate than a regular operation, since it involves children. National Security Officers remain concerned that as a result of the operation, families will be carelessly separated (parents in some families have deportation orders, and children, some of whom are US citizens, may not have orders). If adults are arrested when children are in school, kindergarten, summer camp or away, it is quite possible that parents can be deported and children will remain in the United States.

Proponents of this plan, including Miller, Morgan and ICE Deputy Director Matthew Albbens, argue convincingly that a widely publicized operation of this type will be a warning message and a deterrent for families that do not comply with deportation orders.

On the subject: 'Return every dollar': USCIS officially warned immigrants not to receive social assistance

Almost all illegal migrants who arrived in the United States in 2017 as part of family groups remain in the country. Some of these families are waiting for asylum applications, but administration officials say that more and more people are missing out on court hearings, hoping to live and work in America for as long as possible.

Releasing plans for a future law enforcement operation is unheard of for ICE. Last year, Trump administration officials sharply criticized Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for warning immigrants about the impending raid, saying she was threatening the agents' safety.

“The mayor of Oakland’s decision to go public with his suspicions about ICE operations further increased the risk to our officers and alerted criminal aliens,” said ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan, calling the decision “reckless.”

Homan later retired, but last week Trump said that he would return to government service as a “frontier king”. Homan himself called this announcement “premature” and said he had not decided whether he would accept the job.

Late Monday, Schaaf responded to the president's tweet about "millions" being deported.

“If you continue to threaten, harass and terrorize families in my community, and if we receive credible information, you already know our values ​​and we will stand by those values ​​steadfastly,” she wrote.

Read also on ForumDaily:

'Return every dollar': USCIS officially warned immigrants not to receive social assistance

ICE agents arrest a 32 man during a raid in New England

The House of Representatives passed a bill providing a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants.

More than 1 million immigrants per year: who are these people and what awaits them in the US

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