President Trump has reportedly walked back some of his immigration-raid directives, pausing arrests at hotels, restaurants, and agriculture-related businesses such as farms and meatpacking plants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, struggling to meet the 3,000-arrest daily quota imposed by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in late May, began swooping into workplaces and scooping up suspected undocumented immigrants.
The agents also hit garment districts, Home Depot parking lots, courthouses and ICE offices, grabbing immigrants as they reported for mandatory check-ins. Protests erupted across the U.S., most notably in Los Angeles, where Trump federalized 4,000 National Guard members and sent in 700 Marines over the objections of state and local officials. Millions around the country marched on Saturday to protest the raids and Trump’s military parade, declaring it No King’s Day.
Agriculture industry leaders raised the alarm as the raids threatened to disrupt the nation’s food supply. Farms and food packaging companies were scrambling to find replacement workers after dozens were snatched and others stayed home out of fear. Trump indicated a potential change of heart, at least in some areas, in a Truth Social post Thursday declaring that “Change is coming.”
Later that day, senior ICE official Tatum King told agency officials nationwide to “please hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meatpacking plants), restaurants, and operating hotels,” according to Axios. “Other case types/investigations such as human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are ok, however we are not pursuing noncriminal collaterals.”
At least some ICE agents did not seem to have gotten the memo, as agents continued to round up people from farms 50 miles north of Los Angeles in Oxnard, California, the day after it was sent, advocates told the New York Times.
With News Wire Services
