Donald Trump’s ICE deportation raids are set to begin Sunday, targeting thousands of undocumented families in at least 10 cities. The New York Times reports that it’s “a rapidly changing operation, the final details of which remain in flux”—but the central facts are clear. Trump is aiming to terrorize immigrant communities and excite his racist base, even though key people within his own administration have raised concerns about the plan.
Family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania are ready for the raids to begin, but if there isn’t enough space, families will be detained in hotel rooms. U.S. citizen children will also be held in hotel rooms until a relative—other than the parents being deported—can come get them, in the Trump administration’s new form of family separation. And ICE agents won’t hesitate to arrest any immigrants they find along their way.
The good news, such as it is, is that Trump’s public bragging about the coming raids and the ensuing delays have enabled civil rights and immigration advocates to get out the word to the threatened communities, letting people know, for instance, not to open their doors to ICE since, at least in theory, ICE can’t forcibly enter a home. Some families may also have moved away from the addresses where they’ll be targeted.
But mostly all we’ve got here is bad news, led by the rank cruelty of the man in the White House, the people he’s surrounded himself with, and the Republican base that loves him.