Local leaders across San Diego County are weighing in after President Trump's call to expand deportation efforts in Democrat-run cities in the U.S.
Following up on his post on social media, Trump commented on specifically targeting Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, among other cities where, two days before, thousands of marchers had taken part in the so-called No Kings demonstrations.
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WATCH HERE“I want them to focus on the cities because those cities are where you have what you call sanctuary cities, and that’s where the people are,” Trump said at the G7 meeting in Canada on Monday.
Trump’s declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement and his administration's calls for 3,000 arrests a day, which is an 400%-plus increase from the 650 per day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.
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SIGN UP “What a joke of a President he is in terms of how he decides to do his business, issuing mandates or a declaration through Truth Social," San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said. "While he might be a joke of a president, what he’s doing is deadly serious and it’s a threat to democracy. It’s a threat to our state and to our city."
Some elected officials, however. are in favor of Trump's immigration stance.
“This whole thing is really an outcome of having millions of people coming across our border, unvetted, and, you know, not everybody, but some of the people mean us harm, and, quite frankly, I'm in favor of deporting illegal criminals, people who are here illegally,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said.
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People in San Diego are keeping a close eye on how the expanded deportation efforts in Democrat-led cities plays out.
People in mixed-status families, where some people are documented and some people aren’t, are keeping an especially close eye on what happens next.
“I don’t know what the future really holds, but I just know it’s going to be a long journey,” Sarah who is part of a mixed-status family said.
The push to target so-called blue cities comes not long after the Trump administration directed immigration officers to pause most arrests at hotels, restaurants and farms.
