Trump’s Mass Deportation Era Begins with Sweeping Immigration Raids

On Sunday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted sweeping immigration raids across multiple cities, marking the beginning of President Donald Trump’s promised “era of mass deportations.” The actions resulted in 956 arrests, the largest single-day total under the Trump administration, according to ICE.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, stated that the raids targeted individuals convicted of serious crimes, including murder and sex offenses. “We’ve got to put America’s safety first,” Homan said during a press briefing in Chicago, where several convicted gang members and violent offenders were apprehended.

While ICE emphasized its focus on removing “potentially dangerous criminal aliens,” collateral arrests—detaining individuals without criminal records who were present during raids—sparked criticism. Homan confirmed that such arrests were inevitable. “I don’t have a quota,” he said. “My instructions are clear: arrest as many as you can.”

The raids signal a significant escalation in immigration enforcement. Reports from The Washington Post indicate Trump officials have instructed ICE to ramp up daily arrests to between 1,200 and 1,500 individuals, compared to a few hundred under previous administrations.

The operations also extended to unconventional targets. In Adams County, Colorado, the DEA, alongside ICE and local authorities, raided a makeshift nightclub linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The operation led to the detention of 41 individuals without legal status and the seizure of drugs, weapons, and cash.

Reactions to the raids were mixed. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker expressed support for deporting violent offenders but opposed targeting law-abiding immigrants. “Why are we going after them? These are not people causing problems in our country,” he said.

Meanwhile, advocacy groups criticized the rescission of policies that designated schools and churches as sensitive locations off-limits to ICE raids. Homan defended the change, stating decisions to target these spaces would be made on a “case-by-case basis.”

As the raids continue, Trump has positioned the crackdown as a cornerstone of his administration’s immigration agenda. “We’re enforcing U.S. law to protect American communities,” he declared in a social media post.

With nearly 2,700 arrests since his inauguration, the president’s approach to immigration enforcement has set a contentious tone, reigniting debates over national security and the treatment of undocumented migrants.

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