Illegal immigrant workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries continue to be targeted for arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following President Donald Trump’s recent decision not to exempt them from his deportation operation.
On Monday, 84 workers who lack legal immigration status were arrested at a southwest Louisiana racetrack, the agency announced Wednesday.
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Fourteen farmworkers who work for Lynn-Ette & Sons in upstate New York’s Orleans County were taken into custody by federal immigration authorities last Friday as the White House mulled over whether to target working immigrants or focus on criminals.
The United Farm Workers union told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that it has recently identified workers in Georgia, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington who were arrested or deported, going beyond the known arrests in California, New Mexico, and Nebraska reported last week.
Rebecca Shi, CEO for the American Business Immigration Coalition, said ICE raids are being reported “across red, blue, and purple states alike.”
“We’ve heard growing concern from our members across multiple sectors,” Shi said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “What we’re seeing is a pattern of sudden, chaotic raids that don’t appear to be narrowly focused on dangerous individuals. Instead, they’re sweeping up essential workers who are doing critical jobs and contributing to their communities.”
Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association, said that although the raids have not happened in his home state as of yet, some of his association’s 5,700 individuals and companies have reached out for guidance on how to protect their employees and respond to police if federal authorities show up unannounced.
Members are asking, “What do I need to do to prepare for that? From a business standpoint, what are my rights? What are my responsibilities as an employer? And then secondly, what can I do to help my employees, who you know have some level of concern,” Teagarden said in a phone call Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, does not publicly provide a list of how many arrests its officers have conducted or which businesses have been targeted.
Unaware of who or where ICE officers will go or target next, workers have had to make decisions about whether to show up for a shift and risk not making it home.
“Farm workers, like all of us, need to pay the rent and put food on the table for their kids. That means that they continue to go to work, even if doing so in fear,” Shi, the UFW spokesperson, said. “In Oxnard, CA last week for example, many workers continued to go to work even amidst the raids because they had no other choice. Farm workers will only stay home if there is an imminent threat.”
ICE suddenly began moving in on illegal immigrant workers earlier this month, angering small and large businesses alike.
Last Friday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he planned to take action to ensure farm workers were not the focus of arrest efforts by federal authorities.
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However, earlier this week, Trump walked back that statement despite Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging against it.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, reminded employers that “there’s a right way and wrong way to hire workers” and added it’s “illegal” to hire an illegal immigrant knowingly.
“It’s a matter of messaging, proper messaging,” Homan said Thursday at the White House. “We are going to continue doing worksite enforcement operations even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first.”