UPDATE 2 - Trump's Immigration Raids Begin This Weekend As Rights Groups, Lawmakers Hit Back

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2019) President Donald Trump confirmed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency go ahead with its plans to begin rounding up illegal immigrants in the United States for deportation despite the operation leaking to the public.

"Nothing to be secret about, if the word gets out, it gets out," Trump told reporters on Friday. "Hundreds of people know about it, it's a major operation ...it starts on Sunday and they're going to take people out and they're going to bring them back to their countries or they're going to take criminals out and put them in [US] prison or put them in prison in the countries they came from."

Trump added that the operation is mostly focused on rounding up illegal immigrants with a criminal record.

The raids will target at least 2,000 immigrants who have received deportation orders but remain in the country illegally, the New York Times reported, citing US administration officials.

ICE agents were expected to begin carrying out deportation roundups in 10 US cities in late June. But Trump said he would delay the raids by two weeks to allow time for reaching a solution with Democratic members of Congress.

The agency has previously said it will not comment on any planned operations due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Amnesty International in a tweet said Trump's raids planned for Sunday lack due process and will harm people seeking attention.

US Senators Merkley, Schumer, Murray, Durbin, and Hirono introduced the "Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act" that is designed to combat conditions facing children at the southern border and to reverse Trump's immigration policies, the lawmakers said in a prost on medium.com on Friday.