“We will be removing large numbers of people… starting sometime after July 4,” Trump said, having earlier noted that the deportations would begin “unless we do something pretty miraculous.”

Additional report said that U.S. Immigration authorities had earlier announced plan to launch a sweeping effort to deport recently arrived undocumented families.

The operation is expected to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in as many as 10 U.S. cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, according to a media report.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declined to comment, saying: “Due to law-enforcement sensitivities and the safety and security of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, the agency will not offer specific details related to enforcement operations before the conclusion of those actions.”

The Acting Director of ICE, Mark Morgan, said the agency would target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a US immigration court.

Morgan said ICE wanted to deport undocumented families who had recently arrived in the U.S. to discourage more Central Americans from arriving.

Trump had tweeted, before the formal kickoff of his 2020 re-election campaign, that ICE would begin removing “the millions” of undocumented immigrants in the US.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the country’s top Democrat, responded, saying, “The president’s new threat of a mass deportation dragnet is an act of utter malice and bigotry, designed solely to inject fear in our communities.” (The Nation)