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President Trump's Department of Homeland Security is planning nationwide raids to target 8,400 undocumented immigrants later this month, according to three law enforcement officials and an internal document that described the plan as "the largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE," an acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The raids, scheduled over five days beginning Sept. 17, have been deemed "Operation Mega," according to the document, a memo circulated agency-wide in August.
It is not unusual for ICE operations to target immigrants by the hundreds or even low thousands. The higher than usual target number may be partially driven by an effort to reach a deportation goal at the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, one of the officials said.
Operation Mega is still in planning and its details may change or it may even be cancelled, the officials said, especially as the agency reallocates resources toward rescue operations in Florida ahead of the looming Hurricane Irma.