After demagogue and race-baiter Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump prematurely announced his intention to begin raids across the U.S. to target "millions" of undocumented immigrants for deportation, cities have responded by announcing that they would not facilitate or cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The Mayors of Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and other major cities have directed their local police forces to decline to cooperate with ICE, including use of their databases and other local law enforcement resources.
The raids will begin tomorrow and are expected to involve some 2,000 families who have received a removal order from an immigration court. However, according to reports in the Washington Post, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan is apparently uncomfortable with Trump's aggressive push:
"Acting DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan has been urging ICE, an agency within his department, to conduct a narrower, more targeted operation that would seek to detain a group of about 150 families that were provided with attorneys but dropped out of the legal process and absconded. McAleenan has warned that an indiscriminate operation to arrest migrants in their homes and at work sites risks separating children from their parents in cases where the children are at day care, summer camp or friend’s houses. He also has maintained that ICE should not devote major resources to carrying out a mass interior sweep while telling lawmakers it needs emergency funding to address the crisis at the U.S. border." (our emphasis)Coming as it did a day before his
BONUS: If you or anyone you know may be affected by these raids, know your rights. Think Progress has a guide if ICE shows up at your door.
UPDATE: Facing enormous pressure from
