ICE walks back limits on raids targeting farms, restaurants

WASHINGTON — US immigration officials have walked back limits on enforcement targeting farms, restaurants, hotels and food processing plants just days after putting restrictions in place, two former officials familiar with the matter said, an abrupt shift that followed contradictory public statements by President Donald Trump.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership told field office heads during a call on Monday that it would roll back a directive issued last week that largely paused raids on the businesses, the former officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss the new guidance.

ICE officials were told a daily quota to make 3,000 arrests per day — 10 times the average last year during former President Joe Biden’s administration — would remain in effect, the former officials said.

ICE field office heads had raised concerns they could not meet the quota without raids at the businesses that had been exempted, one of the sources said.

It was not clear why last week’s directive was reversed. Some ICE officials left the call confused, and it appeared they would still need to tread carefully with raids on the previously exempted businesses, the former officials said.

US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE would continue to make arrests at worksites but did not respond to questions about the new guidance.

“There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Washington Post first reported the reversal.

Mr. Trump took office in January aiming to deport record numbers of immigrants in the US illegally. ICE remains far below what would be needed to deport millions of people.

Top White House aide Stephen Miller ordered ICE in late May to dramatically increase arrests to 3,000 per day, leading to intensified raids that prominently targeted some businesses.

Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday that farms and hotel businesses had been suffering from the ramped up enforcement but also said criminals were trying to fill those jobs.

ICE issued guidance that day pausing most immigration enforcement at agricultural, hospitality and food processing businesses. But in another Truth Social post on Sunday, Mr. Trump called on ICE to target the Democratic strongholds of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and to use the full extent of their authority to increase deportations.

A White House official said Mr. Trump was keeping a promise to deliver the country’s single largest mass deportation program.

“Anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation,” the White House official said.

Deborah Fleischaker, who held senior roles at both DHS and ICE during Mr. Biden’s presidency, said the shifting ICE guidance reflects broader turmoil at the agency since Mr. Trump took office. The White House has ousted multiple ICE leaders as it pressed for more arrests.

“It has been chaos and confusion since the beginning,” she said.

The intensified ICE enforcement after Mr. Miller’s late May order renewed long-running concerns among farmers about ICE operations targeting their workforce. Nearly half the country’s approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as do many dairy and meatpacking workers.

Farm industry fears escalated last week when ICE detentions and arrests of workers were reported at California farms, a Nebraska meatpacking plant and a New Mexico dairy.

Livestock and restaurant sector representatives said on a press call organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition on Tuesday that raids make operations more difficult in their heavily immigrant-dependent industries.

“The people pushing for these raids that target farms and feedyards and dairies have no idea how farms operate,” said Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association.

Michael Marsh, CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said farm groups had not had enough input into the administration’s decision-making so far on immigration enforcement in agriculture.

Mr. Marsh said he had not received responses from Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials to a letter sent last week requesting a meeting.

“We’ve got a serious issue if we have almost a million of our workers that are going to be subject to deportation,” he said. “Because if that’s the case, and they are picked up and they are gone, we can’t fill those positions.” — Reuters