US planning mass deportation of illegal aliens from Central America: report

December 24th, 2015 (VOA) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security could begin a large-scale effort to deport Central American families in the country illegally by early January, according to a published report.

The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing a series of raids that would target families who have come to the United States illegally since the start of last year.

The paper, citing unnamed sources, says the nationwide campaign by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start as early as January 2016.

The report says it would be the first large-scale effort to deport the more than 100,000 families who have entered the country through the southern border since last year. Many of those families were fleeing violence in Central America.

The report says the homicide rate in El Salvador has reached its highest level in a generation, and a regional drought is also contributing to the number of people migrating north. Last year, an unprecedented number of migrants were unaccompanied children.  Many are fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the report notes.

But the Post says the operation is expected to target only adults and children who have already been ordered by an immigration judge to leave the country, and the operation has not been given final approval by the Department of Homeland Security.  The number targeted is “expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater,” according to the report.

The agency has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Pressure for deportations is mounting because of a federal ruling in August that children and families housed in U.S. detention centers be allowed to contest their incarceration. That ruling was followed in October and November by another spike in families migrating into the United States illegally.

However, the new operation, if it goes ahead, will likely provoke backlash against the government for being too harsh on families fleeing violence in their home countries. The Obama administration’s policies on immigration previously faced criticism across the political spectrum as being either too severe or not severe enough.

“It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics,” said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “This administration has never acknowledged the truth: that these families are refugees seeking asylum who should be given humanitarian protection rather than being detained or rounded up. When other countries are welcoming far more refugees, the U.S. should be ashamed for using jails and even contemplating large-scale deportation tactics.”

ICR News contributed to this report.