Nationwide raids to arrest and deport thousands of undocumented immigrants will begin Sunday, according to the New York Times, who gathered information from two current and one former homeland security officials. The raids were scheduled for late June but were delayed via Twitter by President Trump.
At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been prepared to sweep 10 major cities for 2,000 undocumented people, and those goals remain for the rescheduled raids. Cities with expected raids are Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco, according to CNN.
Many of the cities involved instructed law enforcement to not cooperate with the raids when the original threat was made, including Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot.
"I have directed — and Superintendent Johnson has confirmed — that CPD has terminated ICE's access to CPD's databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities," Lightfoot said in a statement June 21. "I have also personally spoken with ICE leadership in Chicago and voiced my strong objection to any such raids. Further, I reiterated that CPD will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions."
Despite the resistance from leadership in many of the cities, acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli said that the administration is going to move full steam ahead.
"We're not going to say when operational elements are going to roll out," he told reporters at the White House, according to CNN. "They're absolutely going to happen. There's approximately a million people in this country with removal orders. And of course that isn't what ICE will go after in this, but that's the pool of people who have been all the way through the due process chain."
There has been no official date given for when the raids will take place because Cuccinelli and his team do not want targets to know when they will be coming, but the New York Times' sources have reported that they are expected to begin Sunday.
