The Department of Homeland Security is gearing up to conduct a series of deportation raids targeting hundreds of illegal families who have entered the United States in the past year and been ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to kick off the campaign in early January, officials familiar with the plan told the Washington Post.
More than 100,000 families traveled from Central America to the United States within the past year, though that migration has been overshadowed by a similar surge of unaccompanied minors, who are legally required to be held in detention centers before being released into the country, according to the Washington Examiner. Detention centers in southern states eventually ran out of room to house immigrants and many were given court dates for their asylum applications and then released into the interior.
Many of those given court dates and released have failed to show up for their hearings, and now DHS is going after them.
DHS has not yet given final approval to the raids, which have been the subject of debate within the Obama administration. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has reportedly pushed for the plan after a fresh surge of families crossed the border in October and November, and following a federal judge's order to begin releasing families from detention centers built to accommodate the surge, according to Fox News.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration group, told the Post that he remains skeptical the plan would deport enough immigrants to discourage future surges.
"I'll believe it when I see it," said Krikorian. "What share is this going to be?... It's a drop in the bucket compared to the number they've admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that's the end of it, it's just for show. It's just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater."
