Trump Delays Mass Deportation Raids, Seeks Deal With Democrats

The mass deportation raids were expected to target up to 2,000 families in over ten US cities on Sunday.

Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone mass deportation raids for two weeks as he seeks compromise with Democratic leaders on immigration issues.

The president was under pressure from Democrats to call off  Sunday’s roundup, which was expected to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in up to ten US cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, the Washington Post reported.

US House of Representatives’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, phoned Trump on Friday night to call off the raids and also urged religious leaders the next day to put pressure on Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Republican President has made illegal immigration a centrepiece of his administration and is highlighting the issue in his campaign for the 2020 election.

He has railed against an increase in people crossing the US southern border, many from Central America who are seeking refuge in America under US asylum laws. On Saturday he said the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency was focused on getting the transnational street gang MS-13 out of the US.

In fact, many asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador cite gang violence primarily driven by groups like MS-13 as the reason they come to the US for refuge.

On Twitter, Trump stated that if a solution to the “Asylum and Loophole problems” isn’t found, “Deportations start!”

Neither Pelosi nor senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, had an immediate comment on the delay. Pelosi said earlier in the day that the expected raids would “inject terror into our communities” and tear families apart. “The President’s action makes no distinction between a status violation and committing a serious crime,” Pelosi added.

Mark Morgan, acting director of ICE, said this week his agency would target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a US immigration court.

(Reuters)