(CNN) Acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Ken Cuccinelli said Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are "absolutely going to happen" following a delay from the President to see if Congress could work out a legislative solution on immigration.

"We're not going to say when operational elements are going to roll out," he told reporters at the White House.

He continued, "They're absolutely going to happen. There's approximately a million people in this country with removal orders. And of course that isn't what ICE will go after in this, but that's the pool of people who have been all the way through the due process chain."

The New York Times reported Thursday that ICE would begin to arrest "thousands of members of undocumented families" nationwide beginning Sunday, citing one former and two current homeland security officials.

ICE had planned to arrest and deport families with court-ordered removals in 10 cities in late June, according to a senior immigration official. The day before the raids were set to begin, President Donald Trump delayed them 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."

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