Rights groups blast Obama’s plan to deport families
The administration of US President Barack Obama has come under fire from Democratic presidential candidates and human rights groups for planning a series of raids to deport Central American families.
The US Department of Homeland Security is finalizing plans to deport hundreds of families who have immigrated illegally from Central America since 2014, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The nationwide campaign to deport the immigrants could start as soon as January by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
It would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, the newspaper said.
Over 100,000 families have entered the US from its border with Mexico since 2014.
US officials, who asked not to be identified, said on Thursday the campaign marks an expansion from mostly targeting individuals to pursuing families with undocumented members.
A presidential campaign spokesman for Hillary Clinton, who is leading among Democratic candidates seeking the presidency, said she "has real concerns" about these reports.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, said in a statement, "Our nation has always been a beacon of hope, a refuge for the oppressed ... we need to take steps to protect children and families seeking refuge here, not cast them out."
Another of Clinton's Democratic opponents, ex-Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, tweeted: "Holiday plans for raids to round up/deport Central American refugees fleeing death are wrong. We are a better nation than this."
Hispanic-Americans are a growing force in US politics and Democratic candidates hope their strong participation in the presidential election could help them.
Republicans candidates, especially Donald Trump, have vowed to seal US borders from illegal immigrants.
Trump, who leads the Republican presidential field, caused outrage last June, accusing Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals into the United States and saying undocumented immigrants carried "tremendous infectious disease."
Michelle Brané, director of the Women's Refugee Commission's migrant rights program, said she worried that some families facing deportation may not have had proper legal representation. "It's a pretty traumatic way to break in the new year," she said.
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