By Jonathan Landay and Eric Cox
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump's administration will launch immigration sweeps in multiple U.S. cities almost as soon as he takes office on Monday with Chicago considered a likely first location, officials and rights advocates said.
Incoming "border czar" Tom Homan told Fox News on Saturday that "targeted enforcement operations" would quickly pursue some of what he said were 700,000 migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and under deportation orders. He indicated the efforts would occur in several cities.
"President Trump has been clear from day one ... he's going to secure the border and he's going to have the deportation operation," Homan told Fox News ahead of Trump's inaguration on Monday.
Dulce Ortiz, president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told Reuters that as many as 200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were expected to start raids in the Chicago area on Monday at 5 a.m., aiming to catch people heading into work or starting their day.
The enforcement push was expected to continue for several days, she said.
The information from Ortiz could not be independently confirmed. An ICE spokesperson referred questions to the Trump transition team, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source told Reuters on Friday that agents would also conduct raids in New York and Miami. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that ICE would stage a week-long operation in Chicago with potentially hundreds of agents.
Trump said in an NBC News interview on Saturday that launching the mass deportations he promised in his election campaign would be a top priority. But he declined to identify the cities targeted or when deportations would start.
"It will begin very quickly," said Trump. "We have to get the criminals out of our country."
Homan, a former acting director of ICE, said the agency had carefully planned the operation and identified specific individuals for enforcement.
"Every target for this operation is well-planned, and the whole team will be out there for officers’ safety reasons," he said.
Asked how the detention operations would be received in so-called sanctuary cities, which have pledged not to use city resources for federal immigration raids, Homan said sanctuary city policies were "unfortunate."
In the case of targeted individuals who are already in local jails, he said the cities' stance creates a threat to public safety. Cities would "release that public safety threat back into the community....and force (ICE) officers into communities," Homan said.
He urged public officials of those cities to assist in the deportation raids, but added, "We're going to do this, with or without their help. They are not going to stop us."