ICE raids are reportedly underway

(Image credit: Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

published 14 July 2019

The immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that President Trump has been promising reportedly began on Saturday night in New York and a number of other jurisdictions.

"We are doing targeted enforcement actions against specific individuals who have had their day in immigration court and have been ordered to be removed by an immigration judge," Acting ICE Director Matt Albence told Fox News' Griff Jenkins."We are merely executing those lawfully issued judge's orders."

Immigrant communities in major U.S. cities have been preparing for the ICE raids, as confirmed by President Trump on Friday. Trump has said ICE will initially focus on searching for undocumented immigrants with criminal histories, but fears of deportation are widespread, and many people even say they are carrying their U.S. passports to avoid being mistakenly detained by ICE agents, NBC News reports.

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Several cities seemingly will not let ICE conduct their searches quietly. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said her city's police will not cooperate with ICE. "If you want to come after them, you're going to have to come through us," Breed said. In some cities, government human-service workers are ready to find foster homes for any children left behind if their parents are detained and marked for deportation. In many cases, adult undocumented immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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