Trump’s border czar vows ‘shock and awe’ on immigration in first week

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Donald Trump’s border czar has promised a “shock and awe” approach to ramping up raids targeting illegal immigrants in cities across the US in the first week of the new administration.

Tom Homan said the incoming president would immediately unveil a series of executive orders directing “targeted enforcement operations” by federal officers against immigrants with criminal records.

“You’ll see — in the first week — you’ll see the shock and the panic on the border and you’ll see it inside,” Homan told Fox News on Saturday.

“Enforcement activities will be targeted. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should know exactly who to look for and where to find them when they leave.

Trump has made immigration a central pillar of his re-election campaign, employing increasingly blunt language at rallies that have included accusations that immigrants are “poisoning our country’s blood.”

From his first day back in the White House, he pledged to pursue “the largest criminal deportation program in American history.”

“It’s going to start very early and very quickly,” Trump said in a separate interview with NBC on Saturday. “We need to get criminals out of our country.”

The president-elect declined to say which cities would be targeted first because “things are evolving,” but Homan suggested that Chicago, which is already run by a Democrat, would be “ground zero” for the raids.

On Saturday, Homan warned that a failure to cooperate with ICE officials in arresting immigrants with criminal records in so-called “sanctuary cities” could lead federal authorities to launch massive raids that could lead to massive arrests and deportations.

“These sanctuary policies force us into communities and the result is exactly what they don’t want – more aliens arrested, more bailiffs arrested, because they forced us into this place.”

The immigration directive will be part of a “sign-setting number” that the incoming president says he will sign on his first day in office, among other things on tariffs, labor and regulation.

Neither Trump nor Homan would provide details on what the immigration order would entail, but people familiar with the plans said it would likely raise debate over the president’s authority to involve the military.

“I think there’s going to be a serious discussion about whether he has the authority to send troops to the border — or do you send the National Guard in large numbers?” A Republican member of Congress said.

“This is something you have to wait for.”