Mass migrant deportations planned day after US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will launch ‘a big f***ing operation’ across sanctuary cities - including Chicago and New York - that are safe havens for migrants.

Donald Trump will waste no time enforcing his tough new stance on immigration when he completes his extraordinary comeback on Tuesday and is sworn in as the 47th US president.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to launch a “big f---ing operation” in sanctuary cities – including Chicago and New York – immediately after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

US immigration authorities will carry out mass arrests of undocumented immigrants across the country, a top border official in the incoming Trump administration has said.

The move would be among the first by Republican Trump, who returns to the White House to uphold a campaign pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the US.

Recent remarks by Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan to Fox News came in response to reports in the Wall Street Journal and other US outlets that Trump’s new administration planned to carry out an “immigration raid” in Chicago beginning Tuesday.

“There’s going to be a big raid across the country. Chicago is just one of many places,” said Homan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who oversaw a policy that separated migrant parents and children at the border under the first Trump administration.

Tom Homan has vowed that the mass deportations will begin on Day 1 to focus on illegal immigrants who pose threats to the country. Picture: Kent Nishimura / Getty Images

“On Tuesday, ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens,” he said in the interview.

“What we’re telling ICE, you’re going to enforce the immigration law without apology. You’re going to concentrate on the worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem,” Homan added.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the “large-scale immigration raid” in Chicago was expected to start on Tuesday, a day after Trump’s inauguration, would “last all week” and would involve 100 to 200 ICE officers, citing four unnamed people familiar with the operation’s planning.

One source said ICE offices had already paused ­arrests to make room in detention centres for the targets of the raids.

“We aren’t arresting anyone and bringing them into custody, making room for what may happen,” the source said.

The former director of ICE’s Denver office, John Fabbricatore, said such sweeps ended under the Biden administration, adding that “the men and women of ICE are looking forward to being able to do their job” again.

Supporters of Mr Trump hoping to witness his return to the White House received a blow on Saturday, with the his inauguration moved indoors for the first time in 40 years due to freezing temperatures.

Guatemalan migrants deported from the United States arrive at the Guatemalan Air Force Base on January 10, 2025. Picture: Johan Ordãez / AFP

As organisers put the finishing touches on the US Capitol’s outdoor stage and assembled thousands of chairs on Washington DC’s National Mall, the President-elect blamed “an Arctic blast sweeping the country” for the change of plans.

The forecast for the inauguration on Tuesday is -5C, with the temperature to feel like -12C when Mr Trump, 78, is due to take the oath of office.

“I don’t want to see people hurt or injured in any way,” Mr Trump said, declaring the “very dangerous conditions” had forced his hand.

Up to 250,000 people were expected in the centre of the nation’s capital for the event.

But only a group of dignitaries and guests will be invited ­inside the US Capitol Rotunda, where Ronald Reagan was sworn in for a second time in 1985 due to similar weather.

“This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience,” Mr Trump said.

Rather than parading through the streets of Washington DC, Mr Trump will then travel to Capital One Arena – a basketball stadium with a ­capacity of about 20,000 people – for an indoor celebration.

The revised plan upset some Trump supporters who had travelled for the event and also prompted trolling from Democrats including vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who posted a photo of himself in the snow and said: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.”

A 25,000-strong contingent of police and military personnel had been preparing to guard Washington DC, which authorities were already locking down with almost 50km of anti-scale fencing.

“That threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert,” Capitol Police chief J. Thomas Manger said.

Originally published as Mass migrant deportations planned day after US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration