(Stock photo)

New York Attorney General Letitia James responded Saturday to a surprise announcement by President Donald Trump that he would delay mass arrests of migrant families, saying that while New Yorkers could “breathe a short sigh of relief,” the targeted migrants “should have never been placed in jeopardy by a president who is willing to rip families apart in order to score points with his base.”

“With news of a delay … New Yorkers can breathe a short sigh of relief,” James said in a statement issued Saturday evening. Still, she said, “these families come to this country yearning for the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so using them as pawns in a game of political chess is immoral and reprehensible.”

James then again—as she did on Friday—vowed to do all that she can to protect migrants targeted in raids that may occur in as little as two weeks.

“I can promise that I will do everything in my power to protect every one of our immigrants against threats from the Trump Administration,” James said Saturday evening.

James released her office's statement just hours after Trump announced via tweet on Saturday afternoon that he was postponing his administration's plans for arrests and deportations of large swaths of migrants who have been given deportation orders previously.

Trump said that his temporary about-face was being done at Democrats' request. Several news organizations have reported that on Friday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump and asked him to call off the Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundups.

Trump warned, though, that the raids will proceed after two weeks unless the U.S. Congress works out a solution to mass immigration occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border that he indicated is being driven by “Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border.”

“I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” Trump said in the tweet. “If not, Deportations start!”

On Friday, as news reports of the planned raids spread, some law enforcement leaders in various areas of the country criticized the raids has inhumane and heartless, while warning that they could cause panic.

James on Friday blasted any such operation as “an immoral and unconscionable act by a president and an Administration hell-bent on dividing our country.”

She further said in a statement Friday that “President Trump's use of migrant families and asylum seekers as political punching bags is a despicable act of racism and xenophobia that is antithetical to our basic human values.”

The plan—the “family op,” as it is reportedly called by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security—began to come to light publicly last Monday after Trump tweeted that “next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.”

According to a Washington Post report on Friday that cited as sources three U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans, agents were set to go after as many as 2,000 families in an operation that would likely start with predawn raids Sunday in major cities.

Up to 10 cities could have been home to the raids, along with “other major immigration destinations,” the news report said while again citing the anonymous officials.

The Post noted that the White House has gone to ICE directly and ordered the raids and thus has circumvented Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

McAleenan, according to the report, has been urging ICE—an agency sitting within his own department—to execute smaller, targeted raids that aim to round up some 150 families who have been given lawyers but who have left the legal process and absconded.

The White House has gone to Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan and other ICE officials, the report said, as Trump has remained intent on pushing the mass-arrest plans forward.

According to the Post's article, an ICE spokeswoman, Carol Danko, declined to discuss the operation with the news organization Friday, saying only that “as a law enforcement agency, ICE's mission is to uphold the rule of law; operations targeting violators of immigration laws are not only standard practice, but within the statutory authority prescribed by Congress.”

The article further reported that ICE believes it may make “collateral arrests” by finding others living in the U.S. illegally as the agency descends on target locations for families who have been given deportation orders.

In her statement late Friday afternoon, James also gave information to those who may be targeted, saying that, “if you want to check whether a removal order has been issued against you, you can call the Immigration Court Information System's automated number at 1-800-898-7180.”

“If you need advice, call the Office of New Americans hotline at 1-800-566-7636,” James added.