Thread: Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries

Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries

The abrupt pivot on an issue at the heart of Mr. Trump’s presidency suggested his broad immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies he does not want to lose.

The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance.

The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose.

The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms and businesses. It also came as Mr. Trump made a rare concession this week that his crackdown was hurting American farmers and hospitality businesses.

The guidance was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations.

Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” he wrote in the message.

The email explained that investigations involving “human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.” But it said — crucially — that agents were not to make arrests of “noncriminal collaterals,” a reference to people who are undocumented but who are not known to have committed any crime.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the guidance.

We 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,” Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

For months, Mr. Trump and his aides have said they would target all immigrants without legal status in the United States to make good on his campaign promise for mass deportations. While the administration came into office saying it would initially target undocumented immigrants with criminal records, it has in recent weeks expanded to raiding work sites and sweeping up other undocumented immigrants broadly.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the crackdown might be alienating industries he wanted to keep on his side.

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he said on social media.

Mr. Trump posted after Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, informed him of farmers who were concerned about the ICE enforcement affecting their businesses, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump has for decades owned luxury hotels, an industry with a strong immigrant labor force.

A former Trump administration official added that throughout his first term, Mr. Trump often heard concerns from some Republicans from rural states about how the immigration crackdown would hurt the agricultural industry.

The decision to scale back operations at work sites comes at a crucial time, and the implications of the guidance are still to be determined on the ground. The guidance did not appear to rule out raids at work sites in other industries, like the one at a garment factory in Los Angeles that sparked the protests.

In recent weeks, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has publicly pushed for a “minimum” of 3,000 arrests per day.

Following Mr. Miller’s comments, arrests shot up to over 2,000 a day last week, and in recent days and weeks, ICE officials have conducted operations at restaurants, factories and business across the country.

One Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the email said that agents had felt the pressure for more arrests and that the guidance took them by surprise. Agents were still digesting the long-term implications without a direct signal from the White House about how to carry out the new guidance, the official said.

Mr. King seemed to acknowledge that the new guidance would hurt the quest for higher numbers of arrests.

“We acknowledge that by taking this off the table, that we are eliminating a significant # of potential targets,” he wrote.


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/u...?smid=tw-share

Neither Big Ag or the illegal aliens are Trump supporters. This is inexcusable. Millions of American citizens and legal immigrants did not vote for this betrayal.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been for comprehensive immigration reform. She is reported to have past ties with the Koch brothers who were for amnesty.

The restaurant industry and hotels have not been big Trump supporters. Total betrayal to Americans who can and do these jobs every single day.

This betrayal rewards cheap, slave labor employers. Crimes and criminals are tied to the tens of millions of illegal aliens.

I recall President Trump pitching solution for DACA and working with Democrats in the past administration for amnesty. Every day Americans face consequences for current or past law breaking. Why should illegal aliens who have been here twenty years and their employers get a pass.

Call me disappointed!

Mr. Trump posted after Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, informed him of farmers who were concerned about the ICE enforcement affecting their businesses, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump has for decades owned luxury hotels, an industry with a strong immigrant labor force.

Mr. King seemed to acknowledge that the new guidance would hurt the quest for higher numbers of arrests.

“We acknowledge that by taking this off the table, that we are eliminating a significant # of potential targets,” he wrote.

“Amnesty Don” is apparently back.

Mickey Kaus

@kausmickey

So Trump is not just protecting workers who've been with an employer "for 20, 25 years. He exempting entire huge industries -- agriculture, hotels, restaurants.



Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries

From nytimes.com

1:00 AM · Jun 14, 2025
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41.2K
Views

Mickey Kaus

@kausmickey

Why did Trump choose such an odd moment to cave (right when he was winning the PR Battle of Los Angeles). Maybe the answer is obvious: He knew Israel's Iran raid would bury the news. Not only is it a Friday--the traditional bad news dump day -- it's a bit of a Jo Moore Day. ...

Mickey Kaus

@kausmickey

Jun 12

Trump, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Is Brooke Rollins doing her Koch thing?

https://x.com/kausmickey/status/1933215779883016444/photo/1…

1:36 AM · Jun 14, 2025

2,656 Views

Mickey Kaus


@kausmickey

800,000 illegals got Obama's DACA amnesty. This new Trump amnesty would be way bigger than that ....


Quote


Mickey Kaus


@kausmickey


So Trump is not just protecting workers who've been with an employer "for 20, 25 years. He exempting entire huge industries -- agriculture, hotels, restaurants.

https://nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-ice-raids-farms-hotels.html?smid=tw-share…

1:30 AM · Jun 14, 2025
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3,253
Views

Mickey Kaus



@kausmickey

By definition, every industry that employs a lot of illegals is going to be faced with loss of workers if there are mass deportations. Garment industry? Check. Construction? Check. Horse racing and breeding? Check. Hard to see why they won't be excluded too. What's left?


Quote


Mickey Kaus

@kausmickey



So Trump is not just protecting workers who've been with an employer "for 20, 25 years. He exempting entire huge industries -- agriculture, hotels, restaurants.

https://nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-ice-raids-farms-hotels.html?smid=tw-share…


Last edited1:18 AM · Jun 14, 2025
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Ann Coulter reposted



Mickey Kaus





@kausmickey

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Jun 13




Why would illegal immigrant workers self-deport when they can stick around and get Trump's new "good, long time worker" amnesty from their employers (at least if they work in hotels or on farms, as if the program will stay confined to those industries)

Mickey Kaus


@kausmickey

·
12h


Does Trump have a plan to wean farms, hotels and restaurants off of illegal labor, or are they now home-free zones in perpetuity?

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Mickey Kaus


@kausmickey



Restaurants are now sanctuaries, ICE-free zones! They'll get away with paying less than they do now because every illegal will want to work there. x.com/kausmickey/sta…

@StevenJDuffield

So the news appears to be that we no longer enforce laws against dodging taxes, stealing SS#s, and lying on employment forms if the criminal works at a hotel or at a farm.


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@StevenJDuffield


Jun 12

As a practical matter, there is no such thing as a hard-working, "law-abiding" illegal alien. That worker is dodging taxes, using a fake or stolen SS#, lying on employment documents, or more. Look at the details in 18 USC 1621