ICE Ordered to Pause Immigration Raids on Ag Businesses

By Ryan Hanrahan

Reuters’ Ted Hesson and Marisa Taylor reported at the end of last week that “President Donald Trump’s administration has directed immigration officials to largely pause raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and meatpacking plants, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters, a senior Trump official, and a person familiar with the matter.”

“The order to scale back U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids came from Trump himself, the person familiar with the matter said, and appears to rein in a late-May demand by top White House aide Stephen Miller for more aggressive sweeps,” Hesson and Taylor reported. “Trump was not aware of the extent of the enforcement push and ‘once it hit him, he pulled it back,’ the person said.”

The Associated Press’ Aamer Madhani and Elliot Spagat reported that “the shift suggests Trump’s promise of mass deportations has limits if it threatens industries that rely on workers in the country illegally. Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he disapproved of how farmers and hotels were being affected.”

“‘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 wrote,” according to Madhani and Spagat’s reporting. “‘In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!’”

Hesson and Taylor reported, however, that “the United Farm Workers union said on Friday that it was skeptical the new directive would help workers without legal status. The group said it had calls from members about immigration arrests even after the new directive was issued. ‘As long as Border Patrol and ICE are allowed to sweep through farm worker communities making chaotic arrests…they are still hunting down farm workers,’ the union said in a statement.”

Enforcement Pause Comes After Ag Businesses Raided

Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies reported that “in the Oval Office (this past) Thursday, Trump said, without elaborating fully, that farmers and the hospitality industry shouldn’t lose workers who had been working on a long-term basis without incident. The comments followed a social media post from the president on the issue and a series of attempts by ICE to arrest laborers at farms in Ventura County, California, and at milk and meat processing facilities.”

“In Ventura County last week, ICE agents were turned away at several farms because they did not possess warrants, but nearly three dozen were detained, NBC4 Los Angeles reported,” according to Davies. “At a meatpacking plant in Omaha, dozens were detained and six people are scheduled for deportation, according to the Nebraska Examiner.”

Madhani and Spagat reported that “farm bureaus in California say raids at packinghouses and fields are threatening businesses that supply much of the country’s food. Dozens of farmworkers were arrested after uniformed agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados. Others are skipping work as fear spreads.”

Ag Secretary Rollins Says She’s Aligned With Trump’s Immigration Policy

Davies reported that “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says she’s aligned with the administration’s policy of deporting all illegal immigrants even as President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has pulled back on immigration enforcement at agricultural operations.”

“The New York Times reported Saturday that Trump’s turnaround on deportations for farmworkers came after Rollins raised concerns with the president about the impact of enforcement actions,” Davies reported. “…On Sunday, USDA spokesperson Seth Christensen said Rollins ‘fully supports President Trump’s immigration agenda, starting with strong border security and deportations of all illegally present. This agenda is essential to fixing a broken farm-labor economy and restoring integrity to the American workforce.”

“Rollins herself took to X in an attempt to quell any criticism that she and Trump were somehow not in agreement on the administration’s direction,” Davies reported. “Ignore the noise from the fake news media and the grifters trying to divide us,’ she said, appearing to refer to a New York Times piece Saturday that said top White House officials had been caught ‘off guard’ by the policy switch and were ‘furious at Ms. Rollins.’”

“‘I fully support President Trump’s America First immigration agenda as stated in his campaign, starting with strong border security and deportations of EVERY illegal alien. This agenda is essential to fixing a broken farm-labor economy and restoring integrity to the American workforce,’” Rollins wrote, according to Davies’ reporting.

ICE Ordered to Pause Immigration Raids on Ag Businesses was originally published by Farmdoc.