President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered immigration officials to largely pause raids targeting farms, hotels, restaurants and meatpacking plants, according to reports.
The order to scale back Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations follows weeks of increased raids across the U.S., contributing to massive protests in Los Angeles and across the country. The increase followed orders from top White House aide Stephen Miller to increase daily quotas of detained immigrants.
Trump made a social media post Thursday where he said farms and hospitality businesses were concerned the administration’s far-reaching immigration enforcement was taking away “very good, long time workers” and promising changes.
The Texas Restaurant Association thanked President Trump in a news statement for recognizing the important role of the restaurant industry in the U.S. economy.
“His decision to include restaurants and critical food production sites like dairies and meatpacking plants in the pause on certain enforcement actions, and to consider executive orders that support vetted immigrant labor in this essential industry, are both timely and impactful,” the statement said.
However, there are concerns that the order not to carry out raids will not be enforced in the fields, said Rosemary Rojas, who works with the El Paso-based Border Agricultural Workers Project.
“We don’t trust it,” Rojas said. “It doesn’t matter if it is signed, it doesn’t matter if it comes out of Trump’s mouth, it doesn’t matter where it comes from. We are seeing the opposite.”
Immigration enforcement raids continued after Trump’s June 12 pause order, Rojas said, including one reported by members at an onion plant in Anthony, New Mexico.
Trump expands crackdown into large cities
While Trump has paused immigration enforcement operations in some sectors, he has called for the expansion of raids into cities run by Democrats.
“ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday. “In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”
There is no evidence for Trump’s accusations of noncitizens voting, according to research from the American Immigration Council. His orders echo misinformation about immigrants he has spread since the 2024 election.
Trump entered office and promised to carry out a massive campaign of deportation. His administration has sought to strip the status of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@gannett.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Trump halts immigration raids at farms, restaurants amid backlash, protests
Reporting by Jeff Abbott, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
