By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-18 03:31:42 | Updated at 2025-01-18 05:59:11
2 hours ago
Donald Trump’s incoming US presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing four people familiar with planning.
The raid, expected to start on Tuesday, will last all week, the newspaper said, adding the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
Trump’s transition team did no immediately respond to a request for comment. But a source with knowledge of the incoming administration’s plans said ICE will intensify enforcement across the country and there will not be a special focus on Chicago or surge of personnel there.
“We’re going to be doing operations all across the country,” the person said. “You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”
Trump’s incoming border tsar, Tom Homan, told an event in the Chicago that the administration is “going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois,” the Journal reported.
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbours or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Immigration was at the centre of Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election.
