Mass Deportations Underway from the U.S. of Illegal Migrants

"We're going to take the handcuffs off ICE [U.S. Immigration an Customs and Enforcement] and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that's what's going to happen."

"What we're telling ICE, you're going to go enforce the immigration law without apology."

"You're going to concentrate on the worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table."

"If they're in the country illegally, they got a problem."

Tom Homan, Trump administration border czar

"It'll begin very early, very quickly. I can't say which cities because things are evolving. And I don't think we want to say what city. You'll see it first-hand."

"We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think you would agree with that. I don't know how anyone could not agree."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

Deportation officer making an arrest on December 17, 2024, in New York   AP

 

For the most part, Americans do agree. After all, it was an outstanding to-do item on Mr. Trump's election platform. And he did win the presidential election in November. Which led to his presidential inauguration today. His was a landslide election victory. And when the returning President of the U.S. cautioned that this particular initiative was set to begin very soon, he was right. Try the day following his inauguration, Tuesday.

Either deliberately, or through an unauthorized revelation, the first city to see deportation arrests appears to be Chicago. The Windy City, the city known for hosting the most crime in America. Which has also become a proud -- aside from the third largest city in the United States -- sanctuary city. Which explains in part why it is that Florida has bused large numbers of illegal migrants to Chicago; a gift from a state  that has no wish to accommodate legions of migrants to one that bills itself as a city that will take them.

 

AP Photo

 

Now, federal immigration officers are set to target over 300 individuals who have amassed histories of violent crimes ... on the way to working toward fulfilling the president's promise of large-scale deportations. In Chicago the expectation is that arrests will be ongoing for the week to come. Under President Biden the focus was picking up those who strayed from the border, focusing on those with serious criminal histories, posing national security threats. President Trump is geared to go well beyond that point.

Accordingly there have been intimations that others are set to be arrested as well, such as spouses of tracked criminals, even roommates who though not representing targets themselves, happen to be in the country illegally. Tom Homan as incoming border czar revealed to Fox News that beginning with Chicago (the city where Barack Obama, prepolitical aspirations on a wider scale, worked as a community organizer), and moving on to other cities across the country, federal authorities will be making arrests. 

 

President Trump emphasized on Saturday on NBC News that mass deportations would remain a top priority, without offering dates or cities where the process will begin. Predictably, immigrants themselves as well as groups advocating for them have anticipated Mr. Trump's focus on mass deportations to fulfill a signature pledge of his campaign and will no doubt launch protests at moving forward with his election pledge.

 

Chicago, a sanctuary city since the 1980s, took to limiting how its police force co-operated with federal immigration agents. It has taken to firming up its policies on a number of occasions since, Mr. Trump's first administration eight years earlier, included.

 

                       Border Czar Tom Homan speaks to border guards and national guardsman, alongside Texas governor Gregg Abbott, at Eagle Pass, Texas, November 2024.  AP