Operation Safeguard (2025)
| Operation Safeguard | |
|---|---|
| Part of Mexico–United States border crisis | |
| Operation Name | Operation Safeguard |
| part of | Mexico–United States border crisis |
| Type | Immigration enforcement |
| Scope | Domestic |
| Roster | |
| Executed by | Immigration and Customs Enforcement |
| Countries Participated |  USA |
| Mission | |
| Objective | To detain undocumented migrants with violent criminal histories and expel them from the United States |
| Timeline | |
| Date begin | 2025 |
| Results | |
| Accounting | |
Operation Safeguard (2025) is a law enforcement plan of the United States Government scheduled to be activated on January 21, 2025, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting as the lead agency. Its objective is to rapidly detain and expel undocumented migrants living in urban areas in the United States.
Background
[edit]Operation Safeguard is one of several operational and contingency plans of the United States Government that, according to the Congressional Research Service, are "aimed at stemming unauthorized migration and human smuggling, and interdicting drug trafficking"; Safeguard focuses on "stemming unauthorized migration by pushing unauthorized migrants away from urban areas".[1]
Mission and objective
[edit]The operation's objective is to detain undocumented migrants in major cities and expel them from the United States and, according to an ICE special agent, initial arrests will "target more than 300 people with histories of egregious, violent crimes".[2][3]
Operational planning
[edit]
Tactical planning for the 2025 activation of Operation Safeguard was coordinated by ICE field agents working out of Chicago, Illinois in late 2024 or early 2025, operating under the direction of the Trump transition office and bypassing agency leadership and the incumbent Biden Administration.[4] An operational briefing for ICE agents occurred in Chicago on January 17, 2025, three days before the second inauguration of Donald Trump.[2]
According to the New York Times, the operation will involve simultaneous raids across the city of Chicago involving approximately 150 ICE agents, thereafter moving to other major population centers, but may expand in scope with the reassignment of law enforcement officers from other federal agencies and the federal deputation of local police and National Guard soldiers volunteered by states.[5] In an interview with NBC News on January 18, then President-Elect Donald Trump confirmed, without referring to the operation by name, that "we’re already geared up and it will begin".[2] Tom Homan later indicated deportation flights are planned for migrant removal within days of the operation's start.[4]
According to the Wall Street Journal, Chicago was punitively selected as the first target city "because of the Trump team’s high-profile feud with the city’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson" and the city's sanctuary policy.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry. Congressional Research Service. April 19, 2016.
- ^ a b c Ainsley, Julia (January 18, 2025). "ICE planning major enforcement operation in Chicago after Trump inauguration". CNBC. Retrieved January 18, 2025.
- ^ Breen, Peter (January 18, 2025). "Community leaders tell Chicagoans to know their rights in case ICE raids begin after Trump's inauguration". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
- ^ a b Lamche, Anna (January 18, 2025). "Trump illegal migrant arrests to start on day one". BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
- ^ Aleaziz, Hamed (January 18, 2025). "Trump's Deportation Plan Could Start Next Week in Chicago". New York Times.
- ^ Hackman, Michelle (January 17, 2025). "Trump to Begin Large-Scale Deportations Tuesday". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 19, 2025.