
Trump Deportation plan: The New York ACLU and ACLU of Southern California filed the 44-page lawsuit on behalf of four not-for-profits.
βThe Trump administrationβs threats against immigrants run roughshod over basic fairness and due process,β Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. βFor the many families who came here as refugees fleeing violence, deportation is a death threat.β
Activists on Thursday ramped up efforts to prepare by bolstering know-your-rights pocket guides, circulating information about hotlines and planning public demonstrations.
Vigils outside of detention centers and hundreds of other locations nationwide were set for Friday evening, to be followed by protests Saturday in Miami and Chicago.
Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, said inΒ a statementΒ his government was reaching out to immigrant communities, highlighting legal aid and other resources.
Hillary ClintonΒ criticized the plan on Thursday, when news of the raids emerged alongside reports that the president may try toΒ forceΒ theΒ USΒ census process to include a question asking people if they are citizens.
Trumpβs own immigration agencies were reportedly blindsided byΒ the presidentβs stunning decision in late JuneΒ to tweet about a law enforcement operation before it occurred. Five days later, he announced the raids would be delayed.
Trump, however, has done away with deportation priorities Obama put in place in his second term, and used anti-migrant rhetoric, which has created fear and instability in migrant communities.
Douglas Rivlin, the communications director of the advocacy group Americaβs Voice, said the raids were politically motivated and cruel. βThe massive and glaring failure of the Trump approach on immigration gives this deportation operation the smell of desperation,β he said.
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