A suspected illegal migrant praised Joe Biden and declared “f–k Trump” as he was being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Federal agents have begun arresting undocumented migrants in sanctuary cities, including members of the notorious MS-13 gang, as part of Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive.

Days after Mr Trump returned to the White House, video footage from the raid in Boston, Massachusetts, showed a man said to be a gang member from Haiti, declaring he would not go back to his home country.

“F–k Trump. Biden forever! Thank Obama for everyone you did for me,” he said.

In addition to the alleged MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, and a person with a criminal record from Brazil, Fox News said other migrants that were rounded up included nationals from Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.

The president has suggested he could cut off funding from sanctuary cities which try to impede his broader immigration clampdown.

There are more than 170 sanctuary jurisdictions across the US including California, which limit cooperation with federal agencies to deport undocumented migrants, according to the Centre for Immigration Studies.

“We’re trying to end them, and a lot of the people in those communities don’t want them,” Mr Trump told Fox News.

When asked if he would stop sending money to the cities, he said: “I might have to do that.”

According to ICE, 460 alleged illegal migrants have been arrested in cities including New York, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Washington DC.

“Today was a good day. Today we took several significant public safety threats out of our communities,” Patricia Hyde, acting director for ICE’s Boston field office director, told the news channel.

“Unfortunately, a lot were released by sanctuary policies. But we’re here to tell the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] and the rest of the country that we’re going to find them, whether they’re released or not.”

Mr Trump had campaigned for office on the issue of immigration, saying the US had to seal its southern border with Mexico and make it harder for people to enter by other means – like the temporary work visa schemes Joe Biden had offered to people from counties including Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba.

He has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants already living in the country, a policy that polls show has considerable support among the American public.

Earlier this week, Tom Homan, who has the title of White House “border czar”, said mass deportation raids had started within hours of Mr Trump entering the oval office.

“Teams are out there as of today,” he said on Tuesday. “We gave them direction to prioritise public safety threats that we’re looking for. We’ve been working up the target list.”

The raids came as church leaders and community groups scrambled to find ways to protect people living in the country without papers, as well as people living in the US legally who fear getting caught up in a drag net thrown by ICE.

In Portland, Oregon, the Rev WJ Mark Knutson, said he still planned to provide migrants sanctuary at Augustana Lutheran Church.

He did the same in 2014. One man from El Salvador, wanted for re-entering the United States illegally, took shelter in the church for almost three months, sleeping under the altar the first few nights.

“Theologically, we’ll stand our ground against the government – an unjust law is no law at all,” said Mr Knutson “These are sacred spaces.”