Pelosi: Trump's delayed ICE raids run counter to 'civilized human behavior'

NEW YORK — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Monday blasted President Donald Trump’s plan to conduct sweeping deportation raids against thousands of undocumented immigrants over the weekend after he postponed the operation in an attempt to squeeze congressional Democrats into changing asylum laws.

“When I saw that the president was going to have these raids — I mean, it was so appalling,” Pelosi said at an event at the Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, with Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.). “It’s outside the circle of civilized human behavior to just be kicking down doors, splitting up families.”

After having touted the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, which were expected to hit several major cities across the country, including New York City, Trump announced Saturday that he would delay them for two weeks.

Pelosi said she appealed to Trump as a mother.

“You’re scaring the children of America, not just in those families but their neighbors and their communities. You’re scaring the children,” she said she told him.

If the raids do go forward, Pelosi encouraged immigrants to know their rights to refuse entry to ICE officers without a search warrant from a judge, which is different from a deportation warrant.

“Unless they have a warrant, they have no business coming into your house to search,” she said. “This is not America. This is not what we do here. We do not break up families because of a status violation.”

She also appealed to religious groups that have supported Trump to convince him to change his mind.

“This sent a tremor of fear across the country. And on a Sunday — I mean they said to me, on a Sunday when people of faith are going to church, they don’t know what they are going to be going home to,” she told reporters after the forum.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine