Nancy Pelosi Responded To Trump Delaying ICE Raids With An Important Message
Nancy Pelosi is pleased by the president's recent decision to halt planned deportation raids that would have impacted 10 major cities and thousands of migrant families. In a tweet on Saturday, June 22, the president revealed he'll be temporarily putting a hold on a planned illegal immigration removal process to allow time for Democrats and Republicans to work together on a solution — and the Speaker of the House is welcoming the move. Nancy Pelosi’s response to Donald Trump delaying ICE raids focuses on all the families that would be impacted by the raids while promising to draft "comprehensive immigration reform" during the two-week grace period.
According to CNN, Trump's decision to temporarily delay scheduled raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on migrants who illegally entered the United States comes after Pelosi reportedly appealed to him to reconsider the move. It's worth noting that even if a migrant enters the country illegally, refugees can still legally pursue asylum. Nancy Pelosi reportedly called Trump on Friday night, June 21, asking him to call off a number of ICE deportation raids scheduled for Sunday, June 23, as a source reported to CNN. In response to an email inquiry about the call, the White House confirmed the call to Elite Daily. The pair reportedly spoke for about 12 minutes, per CNN.
President Trump's decision to halt the raids came just hours after he shared his support of the scheduled arrests, which would have impacted 10 major cities around the country, including Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, and at least 2,000 migrant families, according to The Washington Post. The now-delayed raid was reportedly months in the making, per CNN, with ICE sending letters to 2,000 migrant families in February, asking migrants to self-report after they had reportedly received final orders of removal. Per the news organization, ICE put out a statement Friday, June 21, staying mum on the logistics of a possible raid and avoiding questions of how mixed-status families will be affected, saying, "Due to law-enforcement sensitivities and the safety and security of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, the agency will not offer specific details related to ongoing enforcement operations before the conclusion of those actions."
On Saturday, June 22, the president tweeted that he was stalling the planned deportation raids for two weeks while calling on both parties to work together on a solution.
"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," he wrote on the social media platform. "If not, Deportations start!"
Pelosi applauded the change of heart on Twitter on June 22, writing, "Mr. President, delay is welcome. Time is needed for comprehensive immigration reform. Families belong together."
Her response focuses on getting at the root of the issue by putting comprehensive immigration reform in place while also focusing on protecting the migrant family units in the United States.
Earlier that day, the president was singing a different tune, after Pelosi characterized the planned raids as "heartless" and a "brutal action which will tear families apart and inject terror into our communities" in an official statement.
"These families are hard-working members of our communities and our country," she wrote. Questioning the basis of the raid, Pelosi added, "The President's action makes no distinction between a status violation and committing a serious crime."
Trump hit back, tweeting on Saturday, "The people that Ice will apprehend have already been ordered to be deported. This means that they have run from the law and run from the courts. These are people that are supposed to go back to their home country. They broke the law by coming into the country, & now by staying."
However, later that day he'd walked back his decision — at least, temporarily. The White House did not respond to Elite Daily's request for further comment regarding President Trump's decision to delay the raid.
On Sunday, June 23, the president reiterated that the parties will only have two weeks to come up with a solution, writing, "I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins!"
Elite Daily reached out to Speaker Pelosi's representation for further comment on the possibility of "comprehensive immigration reform," but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Only time will tell whether the Republicans and Democrats are able to work across party lines to come up with bipartisan immigration reform legislation, but they'll have two weeks to try to prevent the ICE raids that have the potential to separate migrant families.
