According to local media, the cities targeted for these “punch” operations would be Chicago and New York, two Democratic cities which have sanctuary city status for migrants.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the administration of Donald Trump is preparing to launch the day after his inauguration, Tuesday, January 21, a large-scale raid aimed at arresting and deporting illegal immigrants. The city chosen for this operation would be Chicago, a Democratic city which has declared itself a sanctuary for immigrants. In other words, municipal services refuse to collaborate with federal services to arrest undocumented immigrants. The operation is supposed to start in the morning and continue throughout the week. Between 100 and 200 agents would participate. No quantified objectives were provided. The economic newspaper says it keeps its information from four people informed of the presidential planning.
Donald Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. But a source familiar with the new administration’s plans said ICE, the federal agency responsible for border control, would ramp up operations across the country, and there would be no special attention reach in Chicago, nor an increase in staff there. “We will carry out operations throughout the country”said this source. “You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”
Shortly after my inauguration, we will launch the largest deportation operation in American history. »
Donald Trump in January 2024
Donald Trump campaigned on the theme of the fight against immigration and the promise of carrying out the largest mass expulsion of illegal immigrants in the history of the United States. “Shortly after my inauguration, we will launch the largest eviction operation of American history, Trump declared in January 2024. He seems determined to carry out his job at breakneck speed. His administration would initially target illegal immigrants in the country with criminal records – such as traffic violations. But, his team warned, if someone else is also present illegally during an arrest, even without an infraction, they will also be arrested, the WSJ points out.
-"We’ll start here in Chicago, Illinois," Tom Homan, former ICE director and appointee, reportedly said on a recent trip “border tsar” in the new administration. According to the WSJ, the latter had on this occasion warned the city’s elected official, Brandon Johnson: “If the mayor of Chicago doesn’t want to help, he can walk away. But if he prevents us from doing so, if he knowingly harbors or hides an illegal immigrant, I will prosecute him.”
For his part, the New York Post understands that a raid would also be planned in New York, also a sanctuary city. The city’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, received Tom Homan in December. During a press briefing after this meeting, the elected official, a former police officer from the right wing of the Democratic Party, assured that he intended to continue “protect the rights of hard-working immigrants”. More “we will not be a safe haven for those who commit violent crimes”he said.
500,000 undocumented immigrants in New York
A criticized meeting which had raised fears of a turn of the screw on associations defending migrants. One of them, city comptroller Brad Lander, ruled “scandalous that the mayor of the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known, home to the Statue of Liberty, is meeting today with Donald Trump’s xenophobic border czar”. “Is he so eager for a grace (the Donald Trump) that he is going to sacrifice New Yorkers?”he asked, alluding to the idea, refuted by Eric Adams, that he would seek to approach the Republican president to obtain the cancellation of the corruption proceedings against him. The mayor was again this Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence.
The largest American city, populated by 8.5 million people, more than 30% of whom were born outside the United States, includes around 500,000 undocumented immigrants, potentially targeted by the new Trump administration, according to estimates. The megacity has experienced an unprecedented influx of migrants since spring 2022, with some 200,000 new arrivals from the Mexican border, which have put its reception capacity to the test. The city urgently requisitioned dozens of hotels for months and set up reception centers to accommodate them.
