What to Know About the Trump Administration’s Reversal on ICE Raids Guidance

U.S. immigration officials will continue conducting immigration raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants, marking an apparently rapid reversal of guidance issued last week to exempt those worksites from the Trump Administration’s mass deportations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials told staff in a call on Monday that agents must conduct raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants, two people with knowledge of the call told The Washington Post. Multiple news outlets, including CNN and Reuters, have since confirmed the news.

“There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Post. “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.”

Trump’s pledge to “protect our Farmers”

President Donald Trump has launched a mass-deportation operation since he took office for a second time in January, sparking outrage from Democratic lawmakers and prompting thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets to protest ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants. Trump has recently faced backlash from agriculture and hospitality executives over his hardline immigration agenda, the Post reported. On Thursday, he posted on Truth Social that “changes are coming.”

“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,” Trump said in his post. “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!”

What changed—or didn’t

Despite the public pledge, a White House official told the Post at the time that the White House hadn’t proposed any real policy changes. But three U.S. officials familiar with the situation told The New York Times that the Administration had instructed ICE officials to mostly halt raids and arrests at those worksites.

“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” Tatum King, a senior ICE official, said in an email that was sent out as guidance to regional leaders of the branch of ICE that typically works on criminal investigations, as reported by the Times.

Monday’s reversal of that guidance comes after Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that he wants to “expand efforts to detain and deport illegal Aliens in America’s largest cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”

The United Farm Workers labor union said in an Instagram post that “a ‘shift’ never happened,” adding, “a chaotic raid at a worksite and a warrantless sweep in our communities have the same outcome.”