Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Todd Lyons accused companies hiring illegal immigrants of “exploiting” migrant workers, promising on Sunday that ICE officers will crack down on such companies.
“Not only are we focused on those individuals that are, you know, working here illegally, we’re focused on these American companies that are actually exploiting these laborers,” Lyons said during an interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation.
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“These people that came here for a better life. You know, either, you know, forced labor, child trafficking, you know, a lot of these work site cases — just isn’t a victimless crime of someone here working illegally,” he added. “And that’s why we’re going there with these criminal warrants to focus on these American businesses that are trying to make an extra dollar on the backs of these people that came here for a better life.”
Migrant laborers, often illegal immigrants fleeing third-world economies, form an integral component of many U.S. industries. Amid growing ICE raids targeting those industries, including in the agriculture and hospitality sectors, businesses have warned prices could rise due to a worker shortage.
The Trump administration initially focused on targeting those in the country illegally accused of committing violent crimes. However, ICE’s strategic move in recent months to begin focusing on blue-collar migrant workers and the companies that employ them has raised concerns on both sides of the aisle.
Last month, six Republicans in the California legislature sent a letter to Trump asking him to scale back ICE operations targeting nonviolent illegal immigrants, requesting modernizations to the system that allows noncriminal illegal immigrants “with longstanding ties to our communities” a path toward legal status, and calling on the White House to prioritize immigration reform that would make it easier for people to enter the country legally under federal guest worker programs.
“From construction to hospitality to food processing, California’s employers are struggling to fill positions. Legal, temporary labor should be easier to access and better tailored to support a strong California economy,” the lawmakers wrote, noting that the Golden State’s “tight labor market” is “strangling businesses here — many of which may not be able to operate much longer.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who oversees the city where protests against ICE at times turned violent last month, has also pushed back against the Trump administration’s concerns that businesses are “exploiting” illegal immigrant workers.
Those workers have “risked their lives” to make a better life in the U.S., she suggested during a Sunday interview, and have provided vital labor to businesses across the country, including in Los Angeles, struggling to find employees.
Immigrant advocates in California have accused ICE of racially profiling to carry out arrests, recently filing a lawsuit that alleged “individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside,” with “a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from.”
Lyons, and other officials with the Trump administration, including “border czar” Tom Homan, have voiced worries that anti-ICE rhetoric could lead to deadly violence against agents. Such concerns have led the agency to allow ICE officers to, at times, wear masks concealing their identity during operations targeting illegal immigrants, a controversial move Lyons says protects officers and their families from attacks, but critics view as an authoritarian-style policy mirroring tactics used by Communist regimes like Russia.
ICE TO ACCESS PERSONAL MEDICAID INFORMATION TO CATCH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
During the interview on Sunday, Lyons said he would continue to “allow” agents to wear masks despite having major concerns about the policy and the possibility that impostors could exploit the practice by posing as immigration agents.
“That’s one of our biggest concerns. And I’ve said it publicly before, I’m not a proponent of the masks,” he said. “However, if that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE to keep themselves and their family safe, then I will allow it.”