President Donald Trump announced on social media Thursday that he may exempt the agriculture and hotel industries from his nationwide immigration crackdown.
The announcement is an unexpected shift in policy that arrived after executives in both sectors expressed concerns to Trump about losing reliable, long-time immigrant workers in immigration raids.
Driving the news: Trump tendered the news of a shift in immigration enforcement in a jarring post to his social media network, Truth Social.
- “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 wrote in a post on Truth Social.
- “In many cases, the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs,” he added. “This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming.”
- Shortly thereafter, the New York Times reported the following day that a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official had ordered a pause in immigration raids at agricultural businesses, meat packing plants, restaurants, and hotels.
- The senior ICE official also instructed agents to refrain from arresting undocumented individuals who have not been known to have committed crimes, per the report. Agents were directed to continue investigating and detaining undocumented individuals with criminal backgrounds.
What they’re saying: “We will follow the president’s direction and work to remove the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
