US to begin migrant roundup Sunday: report

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to begin raids on family members of undocumented immigrants Sunday after previously being postponed last month, according to a CNN report Thursday.

The raids were first reported by the New York Times, saying that they are expected to happen in at least 10 cities across the U.S. over multiple days and "authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids."

Roughly 2,000 families are the targets of these raids.

Acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli said that the raids are "absolutely going to happen."

“We're not going to say when operational elements are going to roll out,” Cuccinelli said at the White House Wednesday.

Trump first signaled that the sweeping immigration operations were imminent when he tweeted last month ICE would carry out raids to deport "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," said Trump at the time.

The raids, however, were then delayed to see if Congress could come together and create a legislative solution to solve the country's immigration problem.

Trump has embarked on a clampdown on immigration -- both legal and illegal -- since coming to office in 2017 with the brunt of his efforts devoted to curtailing undocumented migration from Central America where people are fleeing destitute conditions of rampant poverty and gang violence.

The operation that is set to begin Sunday will likely take several days to carry out, CNN reported citing a U.S. official.

Trump administration's efforts to curtail immigration have repeatedly prompted controversy, particularly its "zero tolerance" policy which initially separated migrant children from their parents as they faced deportation proceedings.

Several of Trump's efforts have been dealt with legal setbacks following successive court decisions that deemed them unconstitutional.