The Trump administration has instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to stop immigration raids and investigations at farms, hotels, and restaurants, according to multiple reports.
The new guidance, sent by senior ICE official Tatum King via email last Thursday, instructs regional ICE leaders to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” The New York Times reported. The email was confirmed by a U.S. official who spoke anonymously to the Associated Press. The Department of Homeland Security did not dispute the contents of the email, telling the Times that it “will follow the president’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets.”
President Donald Trump signaled on Thursday that “changes are coming” to immigration enforcement, noting that farmers as well as hotel and leisure businesses had complained about his “very aggressive” crackdown on illegal immigrants. Trump then told reporters at the White House that a new order on immigration enforcement would be issued “pretty soon.”
“Farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers who have worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great, and we’re going to have to do something about that,” he said. “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back … and you know what’s going to happen, what is happening, they get rid of some of their people … and they end up hiring the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.”
Trump said on Sunday that he is still focused on conducting the “largest Mass Deportation Operation” in U.S. history, adding that he wants to ramp up immigration enforcement in America’s largest Democrat-run cities, specifically mentioning Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
“These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s move to stop conducting raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants marks a significant shift in strategy for the Trump administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, along with Stephen Miller, Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, recently said that the Trump administration would push for a “minimum” of 3,000 ICE arrests per day. Noem and Miller reportedly demanded that ICE field office directors and special agents reach the new goal of arrests as the administration seeks to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible after the Biden administration opened the floodgates at the U.S. southern border.
The shift has been criticized by some conservatives who argue that the Trump administration should deport anyone in the country illegally, not just violent criminals and those working in industries other than those exempted in the latest guidelines.
“Under Trump’s new immigration enforcement policy, if you’re an illegal alien, I guess you just have to switch jobs to a restaurant, hotel, farm, or meat packing plant?” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said last week, “Hell no. We can’t tolerate this.”
“Employers who knowingly rely on illegal immigrant labor should be in prison,” he added. “Instead we’re going to back off of immigration enforcement for their sake?”
“If Trump hands out amnesty to a bunch of illegals because his big business buddies have been blowing up his phone, it will stain his legacy forever,” added conservative radio host Jesse Kelly.
Immigration officers have recently conducted raids at farms, meatpacking plants, and businesses nationwide, with an increased focus on Southern California. Last week, ICE agents were spotted chasing down and detaining farm workers in Ventura County and arresting suspected illegal immigrants at car washes in the L.A. area. In Omaha, Nebraska, more suspected illegal immigrants were detained by ICE agents during a raid on a meatpacking plant.
The immigration raids sparked protests and riots in multiple cities throughout the United States. President Donald Trump sent the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles last week in response to the anti-ICE riots, as demonstrations continued in the city throughout the week.