WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The incoming administration of U.S. president Donald Trump plans to step up immigration enforcement across the country after he takes office on Monday, a person with knowledge of the plans said.
“We will be doing operations all over the country,” the person told Reuters on Friday. “You’ll see arrests in New York. You’ll see arrests in Miami.”
The source was responding to a Wall Street Journal report that the administration plans to launch a major immigration crackdown on Chicago on Tuesday.
Citing four people familiar with the planning, the newspaper said the Chicago operation would last a week, with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement sending between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
The source who spoke to Reuters denied that there was a special effort to move staff to Chicago.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Immigration is central to Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election.
“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest eviction operation in American history,” Trump said in January 2024.
Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the US government to help him deport numbers of immigrants, Reuters reports, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to cooperate.