Immigration rights groups are gearing up for mass protests nationwide as President Donald Trump warns mass raids targeting undocumented immigrants will begin “sometime after July Fourth.”

Speaking at a news conference during his trip to Japan earlier this week, Trump said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would begin raids soon "unless we do something pretty miraculous.”

Trump had previously warned that an ICE operation targeting undocumented immigrants with deportation orders was poised to begin. But he called them off June 22 and said he would instead give Congress two weeks to work on new laws to slow the number of immigrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

But he said not enough progress has been made on reforming asylum laws for migrants showing up on the border, so ICE will move ahead with the previously planned raids.

“We will be removing large numbers of people,” Trump said.

Several immigrant rights and activist groups -- including MoveOn, United We Dream, Families Belong Together and American Friends Service Committee -- are planning nationwide protests Tuesday.

There are more than 150 #CloseTheCamps protests scheduled for Tuesday, including a 7 p.m. protest at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, the site where ICE holds adult immigrant detainees in Union County.

“We’ve seen the images and heard the stories coming out of child detention centers. Horrifically, these conditions aren’t an accident. They are the byproduct of an intentional strategy by the Trump administration to terrorize immigrant communities and criminalize immigration,” the groups planning the #CloseTheCamps protests said in a statement.

Other protests are planned at immigration detention centers around the country and at the local offices of members of Congress, including many in New York City and Philadelphia, organizers said.

"We are calling on our people to put their bodies on the line to stop ICE!" Yesterday was just the beginning.



Over 2,000 people have signed up for tonight's call to get involved! Please join us and share with your Jewish friends and family! https://t.co/o8YqKEwOLz pic.twitter.com/gBFkxUwcEi — ✡️ Never Again Action ✡️ (@NeverAgainActn) July 1, 2019

Elizabeth police arrested 36 protesters Sunday after they blocked the entrance to ICE detention center. They were among about 100 protesters participating in “Never Again: Jews Against ICE Week Of Action.”

Organizers said the group blocked the entrance to the Elizabeth facility for about 90 minutes. They compared the detention of immigrants to the detention of Jews during the Holocaust.

“Jews are shutting down ICE, because when we say never again, we mean it,” the group said in a statement. “As Jews, we’ve been taught to never let anything like the Holocaust happen again. Now, with children detained in unacceptable conditions, ICE raids targeting our communities, and people dying at the border while seeking safety in the U.S., we are seeing the signs of a mass atrocity.”

Supporters started a GoFundMe page to raise money for bail and court costs for those arrested. By 3 p.m. Monday, the page had raised more than $68,000 toward a $110,000 goal.

The money not used to bail out the 36 arrested protesters will go to Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrant advocacy group, organizers said.

It is unclear how many undocumented immigrants ICE may be targeting. The agency has not commented on Trump’s comments or whether an operation to round up people with deportation orders in imminent.

ICE has the power to pick up immigrants with deportation orders and send them to immigration detention centers, where they could be quickly sent back to their home countries after a hearing.

New Jersey recently limited how much local police can assist ICE. The sweeping new procedures, unveiled in November by State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, went into effect March 15.

The new rules limit when New Jersey’s 36,000 police officers can assist ICE raids and cut back on cases where undocumented immigrants can be held in county jails until immigration agents pick them up.

New Jersey has one of the largest populations of undocumented immigrants in the nation, with an estimated 475,000 immigrants who are living in the country illegally.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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