The president announced he’ll look to deport more immigrants from America’s biggest cities.
President Donald Trump sought to use Los Angeles as a test case for his most dramatic efforts to date to fulfill his campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history. The results show he may have overplayed his hand.
After immigration officials carried out a series of sweeps in Los Angeles, crowds began to gather, leading to protests and, in some cases, clashes with police. Trump sent in the National Guard over the objection of the governor, then the Marines. A California senator was removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press event when he tried to ask questions.
So what did Americans think of all this? Roughly half said Trump has “gone too far” with the arrests of immigrants and disapprove of his handling of the protests, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
True to form, Trump is now doubling down. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, he wrote that he will be directing ICE to “expand efforts to detain and deport” undocumented immigrants in “America’s largest cities,” specifically naming Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.
Even if Trump wanted to carry out mass deportations at the scale he’s promised, the logistics are nearly impossible.
