Trump curbs immigration enforcement at farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants

By AAMER MADHANI and ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Trump administration directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms restaurants and hotels after President Donald Trump expressed alarm about the impact of aggressive enforcement an official explained Saturday The move follows weeks of increased enforcement since Stephen Miller White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump s immigration policies commented U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least arrests a day up from about a day during the first five months of Trump s second term White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to members of the media at the White House Friday May in Washington Photo Jacquelyn Martin Tatum King an official with ICE s Homeland Assurance Investigations unit wrote regional leaders on Thursday to halt investigations of the agricultural industry including meatpackers restaurants and hotels according to The New York Times A U S official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity proven to The Associated Press the contents of the directive The Homeland Guard Department did not dispute it We will follow the President s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America s streets Tricia McLaughlin a Homeland Defense spokesperson revealed when appealed to confirm the directive The shift suggests Trump s promise of mass deportations has limits if it threatens industries that rely on workers in the country illegally Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he disapproved of how farmers and hotels were being affected Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive plan on immigration is taking very good long time workers away from them with those jobs being almost impossible to replace he wrote In a multitude of cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Agenda 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 Related Articles Thousands join No Kings protests in Denver and across Colorado Watch live No Kings protests underway ahead of DC military parade Protests parades and Pride One week in June is drawing stark American fault lines The Army is set to celebrate years with a parade that coincides with Trump s birthday Thousands expected at No Kings protests across Colorado as tensions over immigration mount While ICE s presence in Los Angeles has captured populace attention and prompted Trump to deploy the California National Guard and Marines immigration executives have also been a growing presence at farms and factories across the country Farm bureaus in California say raids at packinghouses and fields are threatening businesses that supply much of the country s food Dozens of farmworkers were arrested after uniformed agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County which is known for growing strawberries lemons and avocados Others are skipping work as fear spreads ICE made more than arrests Tuesday at a food packaging company in Omaha Nebraska The owner of Glenn Valley Foods disclosed the company was enrolled in a voluntary initiative to verify workers immigration status and that it was operating at limit as it scrambled to find replacements Tom Homan the White House frontier czar has repeatedly revealed ICE will send officers into communities and workplaces particularly in sanctuary jurisdictions that limit the agency s access to local jails Sanctuary cities will get exactly what they don t want more officers in the communities and more officers at the work sites Homan declared Monday on Fox News Channel We can t arrest them in the jail we ll arrest them in the area If we can t arrest them in area we re going to increase work site enforcement operation We re going to flood the zone