Trump delays planned ICE raids

President Donald Trump is delaying previously scheduled deportations to work on a “solution” with Congress, the President announced in a tweet Saturday.

“At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” Trump said. “If not, Deportations start!”

At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019

Trump announced last week that he would begin deporting the estimated nearly 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Trump’s announcement generated outrage from Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who called the planned deportations “inhumane & unwise.”

Other Democrats, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have accused the U.S. of running “concentration camps,” and have compared the Trump administration’s plans to enforce U.S. immigration laws to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that he had secured a deal with Mexico that would see the U.S. expand its policy of returning asylum applicants to Mexico while claims are processed, instead of applicants being released into the U.S.

The Senate Appropriations Committee this week approved Trump’s $4.6 billion request for funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis, but only after the inclusion of a provision that blocks money from being diverted to funding for a wall on the border, and after Republicans dropped a request for more detention beds.