Ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign announcement, President Trump said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement will begin deporting "millions" of undocumented immigrants as early as next week.
That statement, made via Twitter, comes less than three weeks after the president criticized Mexico for not stemming the influx of migrants crossing the U.S.' southern border. President Trump threatened the country with tariffs before reaching a deal addressing those migrants. The president said Monday that "Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border."
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to round up undocumented migrants in major cities across the U.S.
This plan's come up before, and it contributed to the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and the withdrawal of acting ICE director Ronald Vitiello. Neither of them was on board with this; both were concerned about logistics and effectiveness, as well as the public's perception of potentially deporting migrants who have family in the U.S.
But the new acting ICE Director Mark Morgan supports the president's plan. He recently told reporters, "Our next challenge is going to be interior enforcement."
The Trump administration began separating migrant families at the border just over a year ago and said that fulfilled a campaign promise.
But it backtracked in June 2018; President Trump signed an executive order barring officials from separating undocumented migrant children from their guardians at the border.
Morgan says the migrants will be treated with compassion, but some Democrats are not buying it. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a sanctuary state, tweeted, in part: "Mass deportations and family separations are vicious and cruel. We will always defend the rights of our immigrant communities."
