Large immigration raids coming, report says

The Obama administration is planning to deport hundreds of mothers and children from Central America who are in the country illegally, Reuters reported Thursday.

Immigration officials will conduct raids in May and June, expected to be the largest such sweep so far this year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to stage the raids over 30 days across the country. The exact dates are unknown, and sources told Reuters the plan’s details could change.

The campaign will target women and children who have already been identified by the government as being in the U.S. without authorization and have been asked to leave. People who were minors at the time of entry to the U.S. but have since turned 18 will also be targeted.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to expel the estimated 11 million people in the country without documentation as well as force Mexico to pay for the construction of a border wall to prevent further crossings. Likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton condemned a swath of Obama administration raids earlier this year, which put 121 people in federal detention facilities.

During those raids in January, ICE agents focused on Georgia, North Carolina and Texas over a period of two days. The agency has not typically carried out such widespread, organized campaigns to detain people. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said his agency conducted “concerted, nationwide enforcement operations to take into custody and return at a greater rate adults who entered this country illegally with children.”

“To effect removal, most families are first being transported to one of ICE’s family residential centers for temporary processing before being issued travel documents and boarding a return flight to their home countries,” Johnson said on Jan. 4.

Some were sent to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

In a statement to Reuters, ICE did not confirm or deny the presence of the plan to conduct further raids starting this month.

The flow of migrants crossing into the U.S. from Central America has slowed since its highest levels in 2014. During the six-month period from October 2015 to March 2016, the Border Patrol took over 32,000 families into custody.

People who are detained by authorities for crossing illegally are given court dates for deportation proceedings, but court backlogs often cause delays of months or years. People frequently do not appear in court or disregard deportation orders.

The government hopes the additional high-profile raids will, like the January campaign, aid in deterring others from attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Large immigration raids coming, report says."