President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will conduct deportation raids on illegal aliens Sunday, stating the operation will focus on removing “criminals” from the United States.
“It starts on Sunday, and they’re going to take people out and they’re going to bring them back to their countries,” the president said of the planned raids as he left the White House for a trip to Wisconsin and Ohio. “We’re focused on criminals as much as we can, before we do anything else.”
Asked by the media if the administration had given warning of the raid, President Trump said there was no need to do so. “There’s nothing to be secret about,” he said. “ICE is law enforcement, they are great patriots, they have a tough job. Nothing to be secret about. If the word gets out, it gets out.”
This week, the New York Times reported ICE is preparing to round up roughly 200 illegal aliens with final deportation orders in at least ten major U.S. cities. President Donald Trump delayed the raids after details of the operation were leaked to the media.