President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is reconsidering plans for immigration raids in Chicago next week after details were leaked, according to Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”. Homan told The Washington Post that the new administration “hasn’t made a decision yet” and will make a decision based on the leak.
The planned raids were expected to start in multiple U.S. cities, with Chicago being a likely first location. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights claimed that as many as 200 ICE agents would start raids in the Chicago area on Monday morning, aiming to catch people heading into work or starting their day.
Trump had previously promised to launch mass deportations, and Homan confirmed that the focus would be on 700,000 migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and under deportation orders. The operations would take place in several cities, with some 200,000 deportation targets.
However, Homan suggested that the raids would be met with opposition from so-called “sanctuary cities”, which have pledged not to use city resources for federal immigration raids. He urged public officials of those cities to assist in the deportation raids, but said that ICE would proceed regardless of whether they supported the efforts.
Trump himself also spoke on the subject, saying that launching the mass deportations would be a top priority. “It will begin very quickly,” he said. “We have to get the criminals out of our country.”
