Trump’s deportation operation under way, hundreds of migrants arrested: White House

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of migrants in the United States were arrested late on Thursday and others flown out of the country on military aircraft as President Donald Trump´s promised mass deportation operation got underway, the White House said.

The crackdown came as Trump prepared to head on Friday to California and North Carolina, where natural disasters have turned into political footballs, in his first trip since his return to office.

And on another whirlwind day in his first week as president, Trump told Fox News he would “rather not” impose tariffs on China, after repeated vows to hit America´s biggest economic rival with hefty import levies.

The Republican also said he would reach out to Kim Jong Un again, calling the North Korean leader he previously met three times a “smart guy.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump´s administration on Thursday “arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” adding “hundreds” were deported by military aircraft.

“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway,” she said in a post on social media platform X. Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term this week with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.

On his first day in office, Trump signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area, vowing to deport “criminal aliens.” There are an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

On Thursday, the Democratic mayor of the city of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “raided a local establishment... detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant”.

Baraka said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran. ICE announced “538 arrests” and “373 detainers lodged” in an “enforcement update” on X.

ICE lodges detainers for non-citizens who have been arrested on criminal charges and who the agency believes can be deported under the law in order to keep them in custody. Meanwhile, two US military planes carrying dozens of expelled migrants arrived in Guatemala on Friday, authorities said, without specifying whether they were part of the deportation operation launched by President Donald Trump. A total of 79 Guatemalans -- 48 men and 31 women -- were on a first flight that landed at around midnight, the Central American country´s migration institute said.