The orders sent shivers through US immigrant communities, where millions of people who have spent years building families and livelihoods in the country, most of them from Mexico and Central America, were seriously threatened with deportation for the first time in decades.

Rights groups labeled the move a “witch hunt,” warning that mass deportations would damage families with deep roots in the United States and hurt the economy.

But John Kelly, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who issued the new orders in two memos, said they were necessary to address a problem that has “overwhelmed” government resources.

“The surge of illegal immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and has created a significant national security vulnerability to the United States,” he said in one of the memos.

Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned the new guidelines will “harm national security and public safety.”

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said they would result in “needlessly tearing apart families and spreading fear in immigrant communities.”

“What we will not do is turn our NYPD officers into immigration agents – or our jails into holding pens for deportation policy that will only undermine the inclusiveness that has helped make New York City the safest big city in the nation,” he added.

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