Just days into President Donald Trump’s second term, US officials deported hundreds of illegal immigrants and arrested 538 others, his press secretary said late Thursday.
Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media platform X that “the Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” adding that “hundreds” were deported by military planes.
“We are well into the biggest, most extensive deportation operation in history. Commitments made. “Promises fulfilled,” she stated.
Trump started his second term with a slew of executive measures aimed at reforming access to the United States, having pledged throughout the election campaign to crack down on illegal immigration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers “raided a local establishment… detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens without producing a warrant,” according to a statement released by Newark City Mayor Ras J. Baraka on Thursday.
According to the mayor, “this egregious act is in plain violation” of the US Constitution because one of the people arrested during the raid was a veteran of the US military. “Enforcement update… 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged” was the headline of an ICE post on X. Senators Andy Kim and Cory Booker, both Democrats from New Jersey, expressed their “deep concern” over the immigration authorities’ raid in Newark.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” they stated in a joint statement. Trump has threatened to implement “the largest deportation operation in American history,” which would affect an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.
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President Trump signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens” on his first day in office.
His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed during Trump’s first presidency, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border. Earlier in the week the Republican-led US Congress green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
Trump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal immigrants was “poisoning the blood” of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Gentle Reminder: No bad time last forever, it will pass but what you have learnt in those hard times are what defines and mold you.
Chychy Jonas