Trump, in reversal, may exempt farms and hotels from immigration raids

President Trump said successful a social media station connected Thursday that helium is consenting to exempt the agriculture and edifice industries from his nationwide migration crackdown. The astonishment determination came aft executives successful some industries complained to Trump astir losing reliable, longtime migrant workers successful migration raids and struggling to regenerate them.

“Our large Farmers and radical successful the Hotel and Leisure concern person been stating that our precise assertive argumentation connected migration is taking precise good, agelong clip workers distant from them, with those jobs being astir intolerable to replace,” Trump wrote.

“In galore cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs," Trump added. "This is not good. We indispensable support our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

The New York Times reported the pursuing time that a elder Immigration and Customs Enforcement authoritative had ordered a intermission successful migration raids of cultivation businesses, nutrient packing plants, restaurants and hotels.

The elder ICE authoritative besides advised agents to halt arresting undocumented radical who are not known to person committed a crime. Instead, agents were told to analyse and detain undocumented radical with transgression backgrounds, according to the New York Times.

In effect to a question from NBC News regarding Trump's pause, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not quality it. “We volition travel the president’s absorption and proceed to enactment to get the worst of the worst transgression amerciable aliens disconnected of America’s streets," McLaughlin said successful a statement.

An migration crossroads

The perchance important alteration successful the administration’s attack to migration comes arsenic Trump faces a governmental crossroads. Immigration raids successful Los Angeles sparked days of convulsive protests determination and helped substance sweeping anti-Trump protests nationwide connected Saturday.

At the aforesaid time, Trump repeatedly promised his supporters during the 2024 run that helium would deport a cardinal radical a year, the largest wide deportations successful U.S. history.

To conscionable that goal, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller demanded past month that ICE apprehension astatine slightest 3,000 undocumented radical a day.

Three erstwhile DHS officials told NBC News that ICE officials volition person to importantly summation raids of ample workplaces nationwide to conscionable those goals. Those sites see farms, meat-packing plants, hotels and restaurants — the industries that Trump appears to person exempted.

One erstwhile ICE authoritative said that lone raids connected “construction, dairy [and] nutrient processing facilities, carpet mills” would effect successful the ample fig of detentions Miller has demanded. “It’s these low-wage jobs, that is wherever you get the numbers,” the erstwhile authoritative said.

During the 2024 run and since taking office, Trump has dismissed warnings from experts that specified large-scale deportations would pb to idiosyncratic shortages successful the industries helium is seemingly exempting now.

But groups that enactment Trump’s crackdown expect him to support his promise.

“They should beryllium going aft them,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for Federation for American Immigration Reform, a radical that supports a crackdown connected undocumented workers. “I don’t deliberation determination is going to beryllium a immense swath of the state that volition beryllium upset if they bust these companies, if they are employing amerciable immigrants and passing connected the outgo to everyone else.”

Demonstrators successful Omaha, Neb. connected June 13, 2025.Dan Brouillette for NBC News

Targeting slaughterhouses

For years, slaughterhouses person been 1 of the industry’s champion known for relying connected recently arrived migrant labor, successful part, owed to the hard and unsafe quality of the work. And galore slaughterhouses are located successful reddish states scattered passim the Midwest and Southeast. Texas unsocial has astir 500 nutrient and nutrient processing plants, according to USDA data.

Earlier this week, ICE agents raided a locally owned slaughterhouse successful Omaha, Nebraska and arrested astatine slightest 80 undocumented workers, according to section officials.Chad Hartmann, a spokesperson for Glenn Valley Foods, said successful a connection that national agents searched the company’s installation “for persons believed to beryllium utilizing fraudulent documents to summation employment.” He said that the institution strives to run wrong the law, that it is cooperating with agents and that it “is not being charged with immoderate crime.”

But truthful acold ample slaughterhouses person not been consistently targeted by ICE astir the country.

Since Trump took bureau successful January, ICE’s workplace enforcement raids look to person largely targeted smaller businesses specified arsenic a roofer successful Bellingham, Washington, a Mexican edifice successful Harlingen, Texas and a tiny instrumentality shaper successful South Dakota. One of the largest workplace raids to day — which yielded much than 100 arrests —was of a operation tract successful Tallahasseeoverseen by a privately-owned Florida-based operation company.

Larry Stine, an employment lawyer who represents immoderate of the largest meat-packing plants successful the Southeastern United States says his clients are “terrified” of a imaginable raid and person been actively conducting audits of their employees’ paperwork.

Few operation manufacture raids

Trump did not notation an exemption for the operation industry, which besides employs ample numbers of migrant workers. So far, though, the operation manufacture has experienced comparatively fewer ICE raids, manufacture officials said.

Brian Turmail, vice president of nationalist affairs for the Associated General Contractors of America, said that to date, helium is lone alert of sporadic reports of construction-site raids, specified arsenic 1 successful Tallahassee connected May 29 where much than 100 allegedly undocumented individuals were detained.

The contractors’ relation continues to hole members for however to respond if the gait of enforcement actions increases. “We’ve been reposting compliance accusation present that it’s a spot much real,” Turmail said.

Turmail said helium remains assured that the president is delicate to the needs of the operation industry, whose decades-long workforce shortage has lone grown much acute successful caller years. It’s 1 crushed wherefore construction costs person been surging, he said, thing that, successful turn, has resulted successful operation spending declining twelvemonth connected twelvemonth for the archetypal clip since 2019.

“Between higher labour and higher worldly costs, it’s putting developers connected the sidelines due to the fact that projects don’t pencil retired anymore,” Turmail said.

Members of the contactors' relation stay hopeful that the administration’s promises to reorient much of the workforce toward vocational skills volition crook into national spending to bash so.

Turmail predicted that idiosyncratic shortages volition persist and apt worsen if the migration crackdown continues. One mode the medication could assistance code them, helium added, would beryllium creating ways for operation workers to participate the state legally.

“Even if we got each the backing we wanted, we’d inactive request to besides find immoderate impermanent lawful pathways for radical to travel successful and enactment successful construction,” Turmail said.

Democrats accidental Trump’s run promises of millions of wide deportations are hitting economical realities. John Sandweg, who served arsenic ICE manager during the Obama administration, said that to support its 3,000 arrests per time quota, the Trump medication would person to raid factories owned by ample corporations. “No uncertainty immoderate Fortune 500 volition get hit,” helium said.