Just days ago, President Donald Trump suggested that his administration would stop targeting undocumented immigrants working in essential sectors like agriculture and hospitality for detention and deportation—proclaiming, “Changes are coming!”
President Trump, in his social media post on Thursday, had said that many undocumented farm workers are “very good, long time workers,” who are “almost impossible to replace.” He added: “We must protect our Farmers.”
Reports suggest Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was behind the effort to convince Trump to carve out an exemption from detention and deportation for agriculture and hospitality workers.
But on Monday, the pause on immigration sweeps at farms, hotels, and restaurants, was swiftly ended.
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“Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants,” The Washington Post reported. And specifically, “ICE agents have been told to continue conducting enforcement operations at agricultural businesses despite concerns about negative effects on the food industry.”
A Trump Department of Homeland Security official said, “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the White House’s child and family separation policy during the first Trump term, has demanded agents step up arrests to 3,000 per day, even though ICE is currently $1 billion over budget.
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On Sunday night, President Trump announced a new crackdown targeting undocumented immigrants exclusively in Democratic-led strongholds, declaring that blue cities “are the core of the Democrat Power Center.”
Claiming that ICE agents every day face “threats from Radical Democrat Politicians,” he announced “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” before baselessly claiming voter fraud.
But support for Trump’s highly-controversial immigration policies is weakening, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll: 49% disapprove, 44% approve.
“Polling overwhelming shows strong support for providing a path to permanent legal status for America’s farmworkers,” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, on Monday. “In fact, not a single poll shows majority support for deporting them.”
Critics of the new policy, which includes targeting farm, hotel, and restaurant workers for deportation, are blasting the Trump administration.
“Stephen Miller gets his way,” Reichlin-Melnick noted. “Just a few days after Ag. Sec. Rollins convinced Trump to briefly back down, the quotas and indiscriminate raids are back. Farms, restaurants, and hotels are now subject to ICE raids again, with intense pressure on ICE to hit 3,000 arrests a day.”
Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, responded, “That’s what happens when we have a reality TV show star as president. Who are we deporting? Find out after this commercial. What’s the tariff on country X, stay tuned. And which country are we bombing? Just keep watching!”
The United Farm Workers Union blasted the decision, and, like many on social media, questioned who’s making decisions in the White House:
“A ‘shift’ never happened. A chaotic raid at a worksite and a warrantless sweep in our communities have the same outcome. B——- rhetoric aside, they’re hunting us down while we’re trying to feed you. Who’s actually in charge?”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, responding to The Washington Post’s report, wrote: “Looks like Stephen Miller is the boss, after all.”
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This article has been updated to include remarks from Gov. Newsom
Image via Reuters
