Trump says he says he will move forward with immigration raids “fairly soon,” according to the Washington Post. He threatened to begin rounding up millions of undocumented immigrants in the country, including in Texas last month.
It’s unclear when and where these raids might begin, or if they intend to use the same nationwide raid plan that was revealed recently – an ICE-led “family operation” that planned to target as many as 2,000 families in up to 10 U.S. cities, including Houston.
On Sunday, an ICE official said the federal agency was capable and ready of deporting up to 1 million undocumented residents if given the order.
The president’s promise to round up migrants comes amid an ongoing human rights crisis for his administration which has seen migrants caged in humane conditions.
Both Kevin K. McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security and Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of CBP, have been asked by Congress to testify this week concerning the conditions in the camps, which Trump has dismissed.
Last week, members of Congress and officials from the Office of Inspector General visited migrant camps in Clint and El Paso and found overcrowding and unsafe living conditions.
Likewise, a top United Nations human rights official weighed in on the crisis on Monday and said she was “deeply shocked” by conditions in the camps and condemned the fact that “children are forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded facilities, without access to adequate healthcare or food, and with poor sanitation conditions.”
