WASHINGTON—Immigration and Customs Enforcement will launch an effort to round up thousands of undocumented migrants across the country on Sunday as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to three administration officials.
Details of this weekend’s operations remain unknown, but the officials said that the orders include detention and deportations. One of the officials said ICE has been ordered to go after people “who received a final order of deportation from an immigration judge after they were released from custody.”
The enforcement, which is expected to last several days, would include “collateral” deportations, according to one official.
A White House official wouldn’t confirm that the raids would take place but said that there are “serious consequences” for the “one million people who have received final deportation orders” but have remained in the U.S. illegally.
ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The operation had been scheduled to begin last month but President Trump announced a two-week delay during his recent trip to Camp David after the order prompted concerns within the Department of Homeland Security.
On Wednesday, Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the plans would go forward. “They’re absolutely going to happen,” he told reporters at the White House.
Mr. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with illegal immigration, which he vowed to tackle in his 2016 campaign, and is eager to step up deportations. But plans to deport large numbers of immigrants have presented logistical challenges and stirred controversy in Washington and the targeted cities.
Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore and Miami are among the cities anticipating raids, and some local officials signaled their wariness of the expected action.
The decision to attempt the raids has already sparked an outcry from immigration advocates, lawyers and Democrats on Capitol Hill who say that the move would violate the basic rights of many migrants.
“This is wrong, the way we’re doing it to basically to further divide the country, and it doesn’t need to be done,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) told CNN on Thursday. “It’s being used as a division for our country.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said she had called evangelical leaders close to the president when he first began talking about the raids, hoping they would pressure him to back down.
“Families belong together…. Many of these families are mixed-status families,” she said. “We pray the president will think about this.”
The number of agents ICE employs is a fraction of the number of people subject to deportation orders. Local law enforcement might be called upon to assist the federal agents, but several jurisdictions, especially so-called sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, may complicate those efforts by refusing to provide such assistance.
Ahead of Sunday’s planned action, lawyers, immigration advocates and migrant communities are on high alert and may try to avoid any confrontation with authorities.
“I expect our law-enforcement people to carry out the law, whatever it is, as long as Americans’ constitutional rights are protected,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “In fact, I think it would be very bad for a nation built upon the rule of law if the law was not carried out.”
Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com and Alicia A. Caldwell at Alicia.Caldwell@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications Ken Cuccinelli is acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified him as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. July 11.
