Trump's Threatened Mass Deportations Are Still a Very Real Possibility
Several weeks ago, the Washington Post reported plans by the Trump administration to order immigration authorities to begin conducting mass raids on undocumented immigrants. Trump subsequently announced a date for the raids, and then promptly delayed them.
Now, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says that mass immigrants raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement could happen any time, according to CBS News.
“They’re ready to just perform their mission, which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli said on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
But Cuccinelli refused to be more specific about which of these million immigrants would actually face raids and deportation.
“They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort… is really just information kept within ICE at this point,” he told CBS. “The pool of those with final removal orders is enormous.”
Cuccinelli is an immigration hardliner and hardcore racist who was appointed by Trump in May. He is known for comparing immigrants to everything from rats to invading hordes. He also made news recently for blaming drowned migrant father Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramirez for his own daughter’s death. What a guy!
As CBS points out, the functioning of ICE isn’t even under Cuccinelli’s jurisdiction—his agency controls America’s legal immigration system only. But that hasn’t stopped him from speculating on what ICE should be doing.
“Here we are talking about ICE doing its job as if it’s special, and really this should be going on a rolling basis,” he said, referencing the possibility of mass deportations. “They’re looking forward to just doing their jobs.”
On Friday, Trump also suggested that his threatened mass deportations could still come to fruition, saying they would begin “fairly soon.”