WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump’s border czar on Sunday defended raiding churches and schools as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, while six federal agencies launched a sweep aimed at “potentially dangerous criminal aliens” in Chicago.

Trump began his second term last Monday with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling United States (US) immigration.

His Administration quickly moved to ramp up deportations, including by relaxing rules governing enforcement actions at “sensitive” locations such as schools, churches and workplaces.

Asked about the rule change, Tom Homan, who was tapped to oversee Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, said Sunday it sends a clear message.

“There’s consequences of entering the country illegally. If we don’t show there’s consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem,” Homan, who is also the former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told ABC News’s This Week programme.

But Trump has been unhappy with the numbers of arrests so far and has directed federal immigration officials to meet higher detention quotas, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

It said he was ordering ICE to raise the numbers of arrests from a few hundred a day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, citing people with knowledge of internal briefings.

ICE reported making a total of 593 arrests on Friday and 286 arrests on Saturday. In the 2024 federal fiscal year, it averaged around 310 per day, according to agency data.

Homan was speaking from Chicago, a Democratic stronghold and a so-called “sanctuary city” for migrants that Homan has viewed as “ground zero” of the deportation push.

ICE announced Sunday on X that it had joined five other federal agencies in “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”

Joining ICE were the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Customs and Border Protection; and the US Marshals Service.

No details were provided on the extent of the action or how many people were detained.

Meanwhile, Trump on Sunday ordered sweeping tariffs and sanctions against Colombia in retaliation for its refusal to accept deportation flights, as Bogota responded in kind with a 25 per cent levy on US goods.

Trump, peeved after President Gustavo Petro said he turned back US military planes carrying immigrants, began the tariff tit-for-tat by saying he would impose 25 per cent on Colombian products, which would rise to 50 per cent in a week.

His authority to do so was unclear as Colombia, historically one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, enjoys a free-trade agreement with the United States.

Trump also said he would immediately revoke visas for Colombian government officials and “supporters” of President Gustavo Petro — and subject Colombians to greater scrutiny at airports.

“These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Not to be outdone, Petro, writing on X, said that he had instructed his minister for external trade “to raise tariffs on imports from the US to 25 per cent.”

In a later post, he said he had “turned back US military planes”. Trump said two US planes were not allowed to land.

The Colombian government said it was instead ready to send its presidential plane to the United States to transport “with dignity” the migrants whose flights were blocked by Bogota.

Petro also said he was ready to allow civilian US flights carrying deported migrants to land, as long as those aboard were not treated “like criminals.”

Trump’s deportation threats have put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America, the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

Brazil, which is also led by a left-wing president, voiced outrage over treatment by the Trump Administration of dozens of Brazilian migrants deported back to their country on Friday.

The migrants, who were deported under a bilateral agreement pre-dating Trump’s return, were handcuffed on the flight, in what Brazil called “flagrant disregard” for their basic rights.

Several deportation flights since Trump’s return to office have garnered public and media attention, although such actions were also common under previous administrations.

In a break with prior practice, however, the Trump Administration has begun using military aircraft for some repatriation flights, with at least one landing in Guatemala this week.

Several Latin American countries have vowed to welcome back citizens, many of whom have been living and working in the United States for years, with open arms.

The Mexican government said it planned to open nine shelters for its citizens and three more for deported foreigners, under a scheme called “Mexico embraces you”.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the government would also provide humanitarian assistance to deported migrants from other countries before repatriating them.

Honduras, a central American country that is also a large source of migrants to the United States, said it was launching a programme for returnees entitled “Brother, come home,” which would include a “solidarity” payment, food and access to employment opportunities.