President Donald Trump announced in a series of tweets on Monday evening that next week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would begin a process of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

“Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States,” wrote Trump on Twitter last night. “They will be removed as fast as they come in.”

Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people……. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019

While Trump has a history of announcing frightening policies and positions on Twitter that don’t always come to fruition, that doesn’t appear to be the case this time.

Instead, it seems Trump is carrying out the plan for mass ICE raids targeting immigrant families in 10 major U.S. cities, which the Washington Post reported last month. U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials who criticized the plan were reportedly removed, and the plan is now moving forward.

Officials told the Washington Post in May that the raids and deportations were to designed to be an extremely visible show of force against immigrants. And as more and more people have begun referring to and comparing the immigrant detention centers to concentration camps, further parallels are being drawn.

People on Twitter talking about the raids are using the hashtag #Kristallnacht, comparing the mass deportations to the night that saw thousands of Jewish people killed and arrested in Germany in 1938.

As a Jew I think it is fair to compare Trump's actions to #kristallnacht. We already have concentration camps as well as the demonization of entire groups of people. — 🌱🌲 Sam Abolish ICE Zeiberg 🌲🍃 (@SamZoidberg) June 18, 2019

Please call or write your MoC. United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

Explain your concern that given the DHS report about terrible conditions, and this admin's incompetence, that a mass deportation program has the potential to evolve into #Kristallnacht territory. https://t.co/kIIuVS1kwH — Boozy NoBody (@tcapotesashes) June 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/D_Technetium/status/1140964458895986688

ICE Director Mark Morgan has said that deportations will be carried out, “with compassion and humanity.” It’s unclear how that is possible, given funding for education and recreation activities has been cut off in immigrant detention centers housing children, in addition to the many reports of immigrants being held in dangerously cold or hot conditions and dying in ICE custody.

Beto O’Rourke, one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 election, responded succinctly to Trump on Twitter, saying simply, “Militarizing and raiding our communities makes us less, not more, safe.”

H/T Vice

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