The Department of Homeland Security on Monday reversed internal guidance that would have shielded farms, hotels and restaurants from workplace immigration raids – a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that he was sympathetic to concerns from agricultural and hospitality industries.
ICE agents were told in an agency-wide call Monday to continue workplace enforcement operations at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants, the Washington Post reported, citing multiple officials familiar with the directive.
The reversal is a clear indication of Trump’s intent to charge ahead with his promise to launch the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history – even as business leaders plead for relief and warn of labor shortages.
“There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS assistant secretary for DHS, told the Post Monday. “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.”
It was just four days ago that ICE leadership sent a memo directing agents to “hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.” That move came hours after Trump posted to his Truth Social account that “changes are coming” to help “protect our Farmers.”
“Trump had been pulled in two directions on the issue, recently coming under pressure from executives in the agriculture and hospitality industries to loosen up on a sweeping deportation policy that was costing them migrant workers,” according to the Post.
But a White House official said last week that no policy changes were being considered. In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump reversed course, writing that ICE should “do all in their power” to deliver on his deportation agenda.
Meanwhile, top immigration adviser Stephen Miller has been pressuring DHS behind the scenes to hit a goal of 3,000 arrests per day.
However, "some immigration experts say ICE would need to ramp up worksite enforcement to meet the administration’s ambitious arrest quotas,” the publication noted. “Past raids at meatpacking plants, for instance, have led to hundreds of arrests at once.
Trump border czar Tom Homan told the Post that daily arrests had risen to around 2,000.