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Donald Trump’s border czar has promised a “shock and awe” approach to deportations in the first week of the new administration, with sweeping raids targeting undocumented migrants in cities across the US.
Tom Homan said the incoming president will immediately unveil a series of executive orders directing “targeted enforcement operations” by federal officials against immigrants with criminal records.
“You’re going to see — in the first week — you’re going to see shock and awe at the border and you’re going to see it inland,” Homan told Fox News on Saturday.
“It will be targeted coercive operations. When [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] goes out, they will know exactly who they are looking for and mostly where to find them.”
Trump made immigration a central pillar of his re-election campaign, using increasingly draconian language at rallies that included accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.”
He promised to continue the “largest criminal deportation program in American history” starting on his first day back in the White House.
“It’s going to start very early, very soon,” Trump said in a separate interview with NBC on Saturday. “We have to get the criminals out of our country.”
The president-elect declined to say which cities would be targeted first “as things evolve,” but Homan previously indicated that Democratic-controlled Chicago would be “ground zero” for the raids.
On Saturday, Homan warned Democrats in so-called “sanctuary cities” that failure to cooperate with ICE officials in apprehending migrants with criminal records would lead to larger raids by federal authorities that would lead to more arrests and deportations.
“This sanctuary policy will force us into communities, and the result will be exactly what they don’t want — more aliens arrested, more collateral arrested, because they forced us into this position.”
The immigration guidance will be part of a “record number” of executive orders the incoming president has said he will sign on his first day in office, along with others on tariffs, energy and deregulation.
Neither Trump nor Homan would provide specifics on what the migration orders would entail, but people familiar with the plans said they would likely fuel debate over the president’s authority to involve the military.
“I think there’s going to be a serious discussion about whether he has the authority to send troops to the border — or are you just sending the National Guard in more numbers?” said one Republican member of Congress.
“It’s something you should expect.”
