Federal immigration officials will focus on more than 300 individuals with records of serious and violent crimes after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday, said an official, marking the first attempt by his administration towards fulfilling his promise of large-scale deportations.
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The operation will focus on the Chicago area, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not yet been made public. Arrests are expected throughout the week.
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The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests only a fraction of its targets in such operations, although it is expected that Trump will cast a wider net than President Joe Biden, whose focus on detaining individuals far from the border was largely limited to those with serious criminal histories and threats to national security. Trump's associates have said they will arrest others, such as spouses or roommates, who are not targets but are in the country illegally.
ICE and the Trump transition team have not yet responded to a request for comments sent on Saturday. The plan was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, which stated that the operation is expected to begin on Tuesday.
The next border czar for Trump, Tom Homan, told Fox News that Chicago will be one of the many places across the country where federal authorities plan to make arrests.
"We are going to take the handcuffs off of ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that's what's going to happen," Homan stated on Friday. "What we're telling ICE is, you're going to enforce immigration law unapologetically. You're going to focus first on the worst, first on public safety threats, but no one is safe. If they are in the country illegally, they have a problem."
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that mass deportations remain a top priority. He did not give an exact date or city where they will begin, but he indicated that they would start soon.
"It will start very early, very fast," he stated. And added, "I can't say which cities because things are evolving. And I don't think we want to say which city. You will see it firsthand."
"We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think they would agree with that. I don't know how anyone could disagree."
Next week's operations are subject to possible delays due to the weather, the official said. Meteorologists have warned that the Chicago area is facing extremely cold temperatures starting from Sunday that could extend throughout the week.
Migrants and advocacy groups have been preparing since Trump made mass deportations a key promise of his campaign. Trump has often criticized Chicago, which has some of the strongest protections in the country for people in the country without legal status.
The nation's third largest city became a sanctuary city in the 1980s, limiting how the police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. It has strengthened those policies several times since then, including after Trump took office eight years ago.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and first-term Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have said they will not back down from those commitments. In November, Johnson described Trump's deportation plans as "small and weak."
Homan criticized the top Democratic leaders of the state during a visit to the Chicago area last month, where he indicated that the implementation of the plan would start in Chicago.
"The reality is that, I think there has been a level of fear since the day of the elections," said Brandon Lee, spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights on Saturday. "We have always been operating as if Trump was going to target Chicago and Illinois from the beginning of his administration."
Activists have been working to inform migrants of their rights, creating phone chains to notify them where agents are making arrests and warning them that agents often work early in the morning. Agents typically work without judicial orders authorizing them to forcibly enter a residence.
"We are simply trying to be as prepared as possible," Lee said. "We will never know all the details (of ICE operations). But for members of the community, knowing their rights is empowering."
During a press conference on Saturday, US Democratic representatives Jesús García and Delia Ramírez urged migrants in Chicago to remain calm and exercise their rights, particularly to stay silent and refuse to allow agents to enter their homes without warrants.
“We are being tested once again,” Garcia commented. “We have experience in defending our community.”