AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed immigration authorities to intensify deportation efforts across the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Chicago, amid growing public protests and ongoing legal challenges.

The directive comes even as the administration weighs how to mitigate potential disruptions to key sectors of the U.S. economy.

“ICE officers are hereby ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in history,” Trump declared in a social media post on Sunday.