The Trump administration has began flying immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally in another country utilizing navy plane, a White Home spokesperson stated Friday.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared images on the social media web site X of people in handcuffs boarding a navy aircraft.
“Deportation flights have begun,” Leavitt stated. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.”
The usage of navy planes for deportation is the results of a Trump government order signed this week however deportation flights will not be new.
The collection of social media posts from the White Home have been mocked by immigration advocates who famous that deportation flights have been ongoing.
“Are these people seriously trying to suggest the deportation flights have not already been going on?” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council wrote on X.
“They’re lying to you. The Biden administration had already ramped up deportations from the border to a higher level than it was under the Trump admin.”
Trump made cracking down on immigration his prime concern within the 2024 marketing campaign, and administration officers have sought to aggressively tout any motion taken on that entrance in his first few days in workplace.
The president took a slew of government actions on his first day in workplace to restrict the movement of migrants in the US. Trump paused refugee admissions, declared an emergency on the southern border and elevated the U.S. navy presence on the border.
Trump’s Division of Homeland Safety additionally approved brokers to hold out arrests at delicate areas like colleges, church buildings and companies, reversing a Biden administration rule to not make arrests in what was deemed as “sensitive areas.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) touted that it had made 538 arrests and lodged 373 detainers as of Thursday night time.
“I stated from day one, nobody’s off the desk. In the event you’re in the US illegally you bought an issue, however we’re specializing in public security threats first,” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, informed NewsNation on Thursday.
Nonetheless, these figures are additionally not a pointy departure from the degrees that have been below Biden, with Reichlin-Melnick saying the Trump administration was “slap[ping] a ‘mass deportation’ sticker on the side of normal ICE operations.”
The ramp up in motion has additionally led to backlash.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) late Thursday accused ICE of conducting an “unconstitutional raid” in Newark, N.J. Native officers stated brokers detained undocumented immigrants and U.S. residents with out producing a warrant.
