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Donald Trump's border czar has vowed to take a “shock and awe” approach to deportations in the first week of the new administration, with widespread raids targeting illegal immigrants in cities across the US.
Tom Homan said the next president will immediately unveil a series of executive orders directing “targeted enforcement operations” by federal officers against immigrants with criminal records.
“You'll see – in the first week – you'll see shock and horror at the border, and you'll see it at home,” Homan told Fox News on Saturday.
“It's going to be targeted enforcement operations. When (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is done, they'll know exactly who they're looking for and pretty much where to find them.”
Trump has made immigration a central plank of his re-election campaign, using increasingly harsh language at rallies that has included accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.”
He promised to continue “the largest criminal deportation program in American history” starting on the first day of his return to the White House.
“It's going to start very early and very quickly,” 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 specify which cities would be targeted first “because things are evolving,” but Homan previously indicated that Democratic-run Chicago would be “ground zero” for the raids.
Homan on Saturday warned Democrats in so-called “sanctuary cities” that failure to cooperate with ICE officials in apprehending immigrants with criminal records would prompt federal authorities to pursue larger raids that lead to a greater number of arrests and deportations.
“These sanctuary policies will force us into communities and the result will be exactly what they don't want — more foreigners arrested, more collateral arrested, because they forced us into this situation.”
The immigration guidance will be part of a “record number” of executive orders the incoming president said he would sign on his first day in office, along with others on tariffs, energy and deregulation.
Neither Trump nor Homan provided details about what the immigration orders would include, but people familiar with the plans said they could raise controversy over the president's powers to engage the military.
“I think there will be a serious conversation about whether he has the authority to send troops to the border — or does he just send the National Guard in larger numbers?” One Republican member of Congress said.
“That's something you should expect.”
