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Former DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen stopped plan to arrest thousands of migrant parents, children: reportWhite House Had Secret Plan To Arrest Thousands Of Migrant Parents, Children Across U.S., But DHS Chief Kirstjen Nielsen Blocked It. Then She Was Fired: Report
tulc(thought this was an interesting article)In their final weeks as two of the top immigration officials in the White House, former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Ronald Vitiello thwarted a secret White House plan to arrest thousands of migrant parents and children across the country, according to a report.
Citing seven current and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, The Washington Post reported Monday that the Trump administration had sought to launch a "blitz operation" against asylum-seeking families who had crossed into the U.S. in the months after the president's "zero tolerance" policy against those who crossed the border illegally, which resulted in family separations, came to an end.
The operation had set out to target as many as 10,000 asylum seekers, with ICE reportedly having gathered an initial "target list" of 2,500 adults and children across 10 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The majority of families that would have been targeted in the operation had crossed the border over the past 18 months and were in the U.S. either awaiting a court date or in defiance of deportation orders.
Officials behind the plot had also planned to allow fast-track immigration court cases, which would have allowed the government to obtain deportation orders for anyone who failed to show up for their immigration hearings.
Speaking to The Post on condition of anonymity, officials said the main motivation behind the operation was to send a clear message to asylum seekers that the U.S. was ready to get "get tough" again on immigration after its failed "zero tolerance" immigration policy.
According to The Post, both senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller and ICE Deputy Director Matthew Albence, who has since replaced Vitiello as acting ICE chief, were strong proponents of the plan, which they argued would help to deter asylum seekers from making the journey to the U.S. border.