U.S. zeroes in on deportation-order defiers

President Donald Trump’s plan to begin deporting “millions” of migrants as soon as next week will start with people who have defied final deportation orders, acting Immigration Customs and Enforcement Director Mark Morgan said Wednesday.

Morgan told Fox News that the process would begin with those who have had previous access to a lawyer and a court hearing but haven’t complied with the final edict. The agency will help people who voluntarily comply to execute an “ordered, dignified” exit from the U.S., he said.

“We have a demographic that has had an enormous amount of due process,” Morgan said. “We’re not going to exempt any demographic.”

Trump said in a Monday tweet that the immigration agency would begin removing migrants “as fast as they come in” but didn’t provide details about what the new initiative would entail. Morgan said Wednesday that the operation will focus on those who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges but remain in the country.

The president has been focusing on migrants in recent weeks as he tries to make the case that voters should reelect him in 2020.

Morgan told CNN earlier this month that the new Immigration Customs and Enforcement effort could prove a disincentive for migrant families currently traveling to the U.S. who count on legal limits on the time children can be held in government custody to secure release into the country.

The president, who launched his re-election campaign Tuesday, has struggled to secure congressional support for construction of a border barrier, and migration flows have surged in recent months as migrant families from Central America pour into the country from Mexico.

The campaign of Kamala Harris, a senator from California seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump in the general election, said Trump’s tweet is evidence he wants “to rid our country of ethnic and racial groups he doesn’t like.”

“History has shown us what happens when governments begin mass roundups based on ethnic background or national origin,” Harris campaign manager Juan Rodriguez said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on Mexico if the country didn’t stem those migrant flows. The U.S. ultimately relented after the Mexican government agreed to step up internal enforcement efforts.