Report: Trump's U-turn on mass deportations
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The Trump administration has for the first time pumped the brakes on its mass deportation agenda, telling ICE officials to pause raids on farms, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three US officials familiar with the situation. The decision, as reported by The New York Times , comes after Trump made a rare acknowledgement that some of the deportations he's ordered has hurt industries in agricultural, hospitality and food sectors.
'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,' he said in a Truth Social post on Thursday morning. 'We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!' he added.
He further elaborated on these sentiments in a press conference later that same day. 'Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years,' he said. 'They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not,' he continued, adding that there would be an 'order' soon.
The official order from Trump came on Thursday via an email sent by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations. These investigations often lead to worksite raids, which have been happening in increasing frequency all over the country. These raids have led to nationwide anti-ICE protests, most notably in Los Angeles, where demonstrations have been going on for a week straight. 'Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,' King wrote in his message.
King clarified that investigations 'human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.' The order instructed agents not to arrest 'noncriminal collaterals,' a seeming reference to illegal immigrants who have not committed any additional crimes. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the new guidance and said it would follow 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 DHS spokeswoman, said in a statement.
This marks a huge departure in Trump's rhetoric, since over the last few months, he's advocated for deporting all illegal immigrants, regardless of their criminal record. Trump posted about his change of mind after Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, told him that farmers were concerned that ICE enforcement would negatively impact their businesses, a White House official and a person familiar told The Times. There are still officials within the administration who are more aligned with the idea of deporting as many migrants as possible.
Chief among them is White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has been advocating for a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day by ICE. ICE confirmed that Miller held a meeting with dozens of top directors and officials on May 20, where he reportedly 'came in there and eviscerated everyone.' According to the Washington Examiner, Miller allegedly told them: 'You guys aren't doing a good job. You're horrible leaders.'
He then reportedly gave them an open challenge and asked: 'Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?' ICE agents were reportedly surprised by the new guidance to limit raids on certain industries after weeks and months of being told to step it up. King said in his memo that the new rules would hamstring the administration's goals for higher numbers of arrests. 'We acknowledge that by taking this off the table, that we are eliminating a significant [number] of potential targets,' he wrote.
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