Washington: US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, his press secretary said late Thursday.
\n\u201cThe Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,\u201d Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding \u201chundreds\u201d were deported by military aircraft.
\n\u201cThe largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept,\u201d she said.
\nTrump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
\nOn Thursday Newark city mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents \u201craided a local establishment… detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant.\u201d
\nThe mayor said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran, \u201cthis egregious act is in plain violation\u201d of the US Constitution.
\nAn ICE post on X said: \u201cEnforcement update … 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged.\u201d
\nNew Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the Newark raid by immigration agents.
\n\u201cActions like this one sow fear in all of our communities \u2014 and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,\u201d they said in a joint statement.
\nTrump has vowed to carry out \u201cthe largest deportation operation in American history,\u201d impacting an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
\nOn his first day in office he signed orders declaring a \u201cnational emergency\u201d at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport \u201ccriminal aliens.\u201d
\nHis administration said it would also reinstate a \u201cRemain in Mexico\u201d policy that prevailed during Trump\u2019s first presidency, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
\nThe White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
\nEarlier in the week the Republican-led US Congress green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
\nTrump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal migration was \u201cpoisoning the blood\u201d of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington: US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, his press secretary said late Thursday. \u201cThe Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,\u201d Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding \u201chundreds\u201d were deported by military aircraft. \u201cThe largest massive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-457323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n