Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are planning to launch a large raid in Chicago on Tuesday, the day after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to a source briefed on the plans.
The operation will take place at multiple locations across Chicago and is expected to last for several days. ICE will be targeting more than 300 people, focusing on those with histories of violent crimes, one official said.
Sources say ICE will start in Chicago and could move on to other big cities. In an interview with NBC News, Trump said the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would be a top priority for him.
“It’ll begin very early, very quickly,” he said. “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 firsthand.”
“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,” he added.
The plans for the raids were first reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Officials say ICE could send 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that Chicago will be one of several places across the country where federal authorities plan to make arrests.
“We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that’s what’s going to happen,” Homan said. “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.”
Other cities that could see raids include the Washington, D.C., area, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Denver.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised the largest deportation operation in American history. As many as 11 million undocumented migrants lived in the U.S., but the exact number today is unknown.
