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The U.S President Donald Trump warned that the ICE (U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agency will start mass arrests next week. The major objective is deporting millions of migrants out of the country. Trump wrote in a Twitter statement, “Next week, ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in”. The president’s warning comes just over a month after reports that his administration had made a secret plan to carry out mass arrests across 10 major cities in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles and, Chicago. The authorities will target families that had recently entered the United States.

The supposed plan had reportedly been shut down by then DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and former acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello. They both since departed from the White House over concerns regarding a lack of preparation as well as fears that the targeted raids would spark widespread backlash. Now the strategy may have been revived under the replacement of Vitiello (current ICE acting director Mark Morgan) who has vowed to crack down on immigrants living in the U.S, illegally. Morgan had hinted that such a plan could still be in the works in his first 2-weeks at ICE.

He vowed to focus on interior enforcement with targeted arrests that would include families. Morgan informed reporters in Washington on June 4 and said, “Our next challenge is going to be interior enforcement. We will be going after individuals who have gone through due process and who have received final orders of deportation. That will include families”. Morgan said that ICE agents would treat the parents and children they detain with compassion and humanity any enforcement campaign targeting families is likely to see widespread backlash across the country, especially in the wake of the Trump administration’s failed family separation policy.