Trump team now 'reviewing' plans for Chicago ICE raids: Incoming border czar
President-elect Donald Trump's border czar said the incoming administration is now "reviewing" whether to launch removal operations in Chicago after a series of news reports in recent days indicated the raids would be launched as early as the day after Trump is sworn in as president.
"We're reviewing any plans in Chicago because of the leak," Tom Homan told ABC News, adding that the news reports may have potentially put officer safety at risk.
As part of Trump's strategy to secure the border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had planned to carry out post-inauguration raids as early as Tuesday, starting in Chicago and then moving on to other big cities, sources briefed on the plans told ABC News.
Homan said that even though his team is now reviewing how to proceed in Chicago, Trump and his incoming administration are still committed to quickly taking aggressive action.
"When the president gets sworn in, ICE officers are going to have a new priority of seeking out those who are considered a public safety threat and a national security threat," Homan told ABC News.
In an interview with ABC News' Rachel Scott earlier Saturday, Trump called the raids a "big priority" when asked whether his administration could carry out post-inauguration raids as early as Tuesday. He declined to discuss timing but vowed it "will happen."
"It's a priority that we get the criminals out of our country," he said. "And it is for everybody else -- it's one of the reasons I won the election by such a big margin. And it is a priority."
ICE has been ramping up its operations in anticipation of Trump's plan to carry out deportations, and the agency put out a request for ICE agents to volunteer to help with at least some of the operations, according to a source.
Agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, such as Enforcement and Removal Operations, which handles deportations, and Homeland Security Investigations, have been put on "alert" by the incoming administration, officials with knowledge of the plan told ABC News earlier Saturday.
Although field teams have not been given specific details about what next week will hold, federal agents assigned to the region were asked to prepare cases and operations that were "ready to go," the officials said.
The plans for ICE raids next were first reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Homan has previewed these operations in past comments, especially targeting Chicago.
In December, Homan visited the city and promised enforcement operations would begin there.
"All that starts Jan. 21, and we're going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois," Homan said during the visit.
Homan has promised to go after violent offenders in the United States.
