Topline
The Trump administration will now focus its deportation raids on “America’s largest cities,” Trump announced on his social media platform, again evolving the administration’s message after he was criticized by even some conservatives for raids that could hurt the hospitality and agriculture industries.
President Donald Trump steps off of Air Force One at Calgary International Airport, before the start … More of the G7 summit, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 15, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
Key Facts
Trump said his administration will “expand efforts to detain and deport illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York,” calling them “the core of the Democrat Power Center” in a Sunday Truth Social post.
Trump made the statement after acknowledging Thursday the hospitality and farming industries “have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them,” promising “changes are coming!”
ICE on Thursday also instructed its regional leaders in an email to pause “work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture . . . restaurants and operating hotels,” The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the guidance.
The directive also tells officials not to make arrests of “noncriminal collaterals,” undocumented people with no known criminal record, and acknowledges the new protocol is “eliminating a significant # of potential targets.”
These instructions are a reversal from the orders the Trump administration reportedly gave ICE earlier this month to conduct workplace raids and essentially do whatever it takes to increase arrests, sparking bipartisan backlash, including chaotic protests in Los Angeles.
Chief Critics
Trump’s farm raids sparked backlash from industry trade groups and Republicans in farming-heavy states. Some agricultural plants and farms reported their workers stopped showing up after the Trump administration raided facilities and farms from Nebraska to California, according to multiple reports. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Penn., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told reporters this week the farm raids are “just wrong” and that “they need to knock it off” and “go after the criminals and give us time to put processes in place so we don’t disrupt the food supply chain.”
Big Number
1,300. That’s about how many daily arrests ICE has averaged in June, a more than 100% increase from Trump’s first 100 days in office, CBS reported, citing internal government data.
Trump’s Own Companies Use Foreign Hospitality Workers
Trump has rolled back arrests of migrants working in the hospitality and farming industries as his own companies have hired at least 1,880 seasonal workers since 2008, using temporary visa programs for workers at Mar-a-Lago, four of his golf clubs and his Virginia winery, Forbes reported previously, citing Department of Labor data.
Key Background
The Trump administration ramped up its mass deportation campaign earlier this month, setting a new goal to increase the number of arrests to 3,000 per day in an effort to reach Trump’s goal of 1 million arrests during his first year in office. Trump’s immigration czar and the architect of his mass deportation plans, Stephen Miller, has spearheaded the more aggressive push, and reportedly urged ICE officials in recent weeks to expand arrest criteria to migrants who haven’t been accused of crimes, contradicting repeated promises from Trump and his allies that they would target potentially dangerous undocumented people. The enhanced enforcement campaign led to high-profile surprise workplace raids, including at a Home Depot in the Los Angeles area, a meat production plant in Omaha and farms in Oxnard, Calif., prompting protests across the country and concerns from the farming industry.
Further Reading
Stephen Miller Pushes For Even More Surprise ICE Raids—His Deportation Quotas, Explained (Forbes)
Trump Org Keeps Bringing In Foreign Workers To Staff Its Clubs And Winery (Forbes)
