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Details of planned immigration raids are unclear, but they would be the opening step in the president-elect’s goal of overseeing the largest deportation program in history.
The operation was expected to start on Tuesday and last through the following Monday, according to people familiar with the planning. Credit… Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz have covered immigration politics and enforcement during both the Biden and Trump administrations. They reported from Washington.
Published Jan. 17, 2025 Updated Jan. 18, 2025
The incoming Trump administration has planned for “post-inauguration” immigration raids in Chicago next week, according to two people familiar with the planning and correspondence reviewed by The New York Times, an opening step in President-elect Donald J. Trump’s goal to oversee the largest deportation operation in American history.
The plan, called “Operation Safeguard” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would start on Tuesday, the day after Mr. Trump is inaugurated, and last until the following Monday, according to the people familiar with it and the correspondence. The dates were still being finalized, however, and could change.
On Saturday, after the plan were reported by news media outlets including The New York Times, Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, said that the reports had increased “officer safety risks.”
“Chicago’s not off the table” after the reports, he said, but “no decision has been made yet.”
The size of the planned operation was unclear. ICE routinely conducts deportations in cities throughout the United States. But the agency was taking additional steps to ramp up enforcement for the operation and tied it to Mr. Trump’s inauguration in a message sent to personnel throughout the agency.
Hundreds of agents were asked to volunteer and participate in the “post-inauguration” operation targeting immigrants in the United States illegally. ICE is planning on sending roughly 150 agents to Chicago for the raids.
For Mr. Trump, the optics of immigration agents sporting ballistic gear and arresting immigrants with uncertain or contested status in a Democratic-led city could be enough. The incoming administration is eager to find ways to send a message that it is cracking down on undocumented immigrants and punishing so-called sanctuary cities — communities like Chicago that refuse to hand over immigrants detained by the police to federal immigration authorities.
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