Trump vaguely threatens to deport "millions" of undocumented immigrants next week

Trump said the agency would start deporting undocumented immigrants "as quickly as they would come in," and called on congressional Democrats to tackle the "border crisis." The plan Trump was talking about was not immediately clear, and neither the White House nor immigration and customs control services responded to CNN's request for clarification on Monday.

The tweets arrived a few hours before the president officially launched his bid for 2020. He launched his 2016 campaign by promising to take a tough stance against illegal immigration by building a wall and ridding the country of violence. undocumented immigrants, but the expulsion of millions of people, as suggested on Monday Trump, requires vast resources and ICE is already under pressure by migrants crossing the border. illegally.

US Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, declined to comment on the president's tweeting on the president's tweets, while leaving a speech Tuesday morning.

A senior administration official told CNN on Tuesday that more than "1 million" undocumented immigrants "had received a final deportation order from federal judges but that". they were still on the run in the country "and said that the implementation of these ordinances was" a top priority "for ICE.

Earlier this month, Mark Morgan, the new interim director of ICE, said the agency was exploring options to arrest and expel families who had gone through court proceedings and had received bribes. order to leave the United States. This operation would target migrants with a "final order of reference," Morgan said.

Morgan has described the risk of family evictions as a way to reduce the incentive for migrants to visit the United States. Families are often released in the United States as a result of arrest, due to the government's lengthy detention period.

Former US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen rejected the plan, saying the department's policy was to prioritize criminals for deportation, a US official said.

US officials familiar with the "preparations have said in recent days that the operation was not imminent", and following Trump's tweets, ICE officials have stated that "there is no such thing as". they "were not aware that the president was considering disclosing their application plans on Twitter," The Washington Post reported Monday.

Under former President Barack Obama, the department had deployed an operation targeting families in recent years. He was relaunched in the first year of Trump's tenure.

Last year, President, Mayor Libby Schaaf, expressed her frustration at the Mayor of Oakland, California, after issuing a public warning to immigrant communities in the United States. his city regarding the imminent raids conducted by ICE in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"They had close to a thousand people ready to be found, ready to go out on the street … they say that 85% of them were criminals and that they had a criminal record. And the Mayor of Oakland has come out and warned them all, "Trump said. said at the time, adding that his actions were a "shame".

Joe Johns of CNN, Geneva Sands, Priscilla Alvarez and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.