US President Donald Trump on Friday said mass deportation roundups would begin “fairly soon” as US migrant advocates vowed that their communities would be “ready” when immigration officers come.
Trump, who has made a hardline immigration stance a key issue of his presidency and re-election bid for next year, postponed the operation last month after the date was leaked, but on Monday he said it would take place after Thursday.
“They’ll be starting fairly soon, but I don’t call them raids, we’re removing people, all of these people who have come in over the years illegally,” he told reporters at the White House on Friday.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month said operations would target recently arrived undocumented migrants in a bid to discourage a surge of Central American families at the southwest border.
ICE said in a statement that its focus was arresting people with criminal histories, but any immigrant found in violation of US laws was subject to arrest.
Government documents published this week by migrant rights groups showed some past ICE operations resulted in more so-called “collateral” arrests of undocumented migrants agents happened to find, than apprehensions of targeted people.
Migrant rights groups said this generalized threat is harmful to communities and the US economy, as it forces adults to miss work and children to skip school out of fear they might be picked up and separated.
“We have to be ready, not just when Trump announces it, because there are arrests every day,” said Elsa Lopez, an organizer for Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a New Mexico group that educates migrants on their civil rights and creates telephone networks to send alerts if ICE enters their neighborhood.
The threatened raids come after migrant apprehensions on the southwest border hit a 13-year high in May before easing last month as Mexico increased immigration enforcement.
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