After the 'No Kings' protest across major cities in a show of dissent against him, US President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritise deportations from Democratic-run cities. He called on ICE officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that to reach the goal officials "must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.” The President made the call for stepped up enforcement in Democratic-controlled cities as he was making his way to the G7 Summit in Canada. Pause on arrests In the same post, Trump directed his administration to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels. This order is based on Trump expressing alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a US official familiar who spoke to PA only on condition of anonymity. Trump's declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term. 'No Kings' protests across major US cities Organised by the No Kings coalition, the protests on Saturday drew an estimated five million participants across all 50 states, in over 2,100 cities and towns. These demonstrations were timed to coincide with a military parade held in Washington DC to commemorate the US Army’s 250th anniversary. The date also happened to mark Trump’s 79th birthday. Saturday's protests were mostly peaceful. But police in Los Angeles used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the event ended. Officers in Portland, Oregon, also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening. (With inputs from AP)
