(CNSNews.com) – Reacting to reports that I.C.E. agents will launch immigration raids this coming Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a news conference the raids are “heartless.”
She also took the unusual step of advising aliens with deportation orders against them that they may not have to open the door to I.C.E. agents:
“Families belong together. Every person in America has rights. These families are hard-working members of our communities and our country. This brutal action will terrorize children and tear families apart,” she said on Thursday.
Pelosi mentioned an immigration event she attended in Queens, N.Y., where she explained that an I.C.E. deportation order is not the same thing as a search warrant:
“I read them this card,” Pelosi told the news conference, holding up that same card:
An I.C.E. deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant. If that is the only document I.C.E. brings to a home raid, agents do not have the legal right to enter a home.
If I.C.E. agents don’t have a warrant signed by a judge, a person may refuse to open the door and let them in. An administrative order of removal from I.C.E. or immigration authorities is simply not enough.
Families belong together. Everyone in our country has rights. Many of these families are mixed-status families. We hope the president — we pray that the president will think about this.
Press reports said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will conduct raids on Sunday targeting people whose immigrations hearings have ended with orders of removal.
Sunday’s raids are expected to take place 10 cities.
Appearing on CNN Wednesday night, Ken Cuccinelli, the Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said it shouldn’t be newsworthy that I.C.E. is doing its job, which is to “pursue” the people who don’t respond to removal orders.
“So there’s about a million removal orders where people have gone all the way through a long process — they got due process and so forth, and that’s the pool that I.C.E. has to work from in terms of removals,” Cuccinelli said.
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