President Donald Trump Monday night, less than 24 hours before he officially kicks off his re-election campaign, leaked details of a secret U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that has been in the planning stages for months.
“Next week ICE will begin the process of removing 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,” Trump tweeted at 9:20 PM ET.
The Washington Post, three minutes before midnight, published its report based on the President’s surprise tweet, revealing details of ICE’s plan.
“The family arrest plan has been considered even more sensitive than a typical operation because children are involved, and Homeland Security officials retain significant concerns that families will be inadvertently separated by the operation, especially because parents in some households have deportation orders but their children — some of whom are U.S. citizens — might not,” The Post reports. “Should adults be arrested without their children because they are at school, day care, summer camp or a friend’s house, it is possible parents could be deported while their children are left behind.”
Many took to social media to express in the strongest terms possible their outrage.
Image by Joe Brusky via Flickr and a CC license