President Trump is adjusting his immigration crackdown, making room for a more practical approach that could protect key industries like agriculture and hospitality. After months of aggressive workplace raids and promises of mass deportations, Trump is now signaling a willingness to exempt some sectors from enforcement actions. The reason is clear: America still runs on labor from undocumented immigrants, and removing them all at once has started to cause serious disruptions.
Trump Renegotiates
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump acknowledged the concerns from business owners across the country. “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.
This marks a shift from his earlier pledge to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. He had promised to deport one million undocumented immigrants each year and demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest at least 3,000 people a day.
Now, the administration appears to be walking a finer line. Trump emphasized that criminals who entered under what he called Biden’s “very stupid open borders policy” should still be removed. “We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!” he added.
Business Owners Sound the Alarm
The change comes after major backlash from industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor. In Omaha, Nebraska, federal agents raided Glenn Valley Foods, arresting about 75 workers. That was roughly half the production line. The next day, the meatpacking plant was running at just 15 percent of capacity.
CEO Gary Rohwer made it clear how critical these workers are. “Without them, there wouldn’t be an industry,” he said. “They are hardworking, show up on time, don’t complain. If you take the Hispanics out of this country, it’s going to be terrible.”
Rohwer explained that most of the arrested employees had been with the company for a decade or more. Many were like family. “We cook them Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners,” he said.
In San Diego, a restaurant chain shut down all seven of its locations for two days after ICE detained workers suspected of using false immigration documents. “The raid terrified the staff,” said hostess Anaclaudia Uribe, who arrived at work just as the agents were leaving through the back to avoid protesters.
At a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, federal agents arrested over 100 workers. Supervisor Joe Caliendo said the chaos nearly ruined a multimillion-dollar concrete pour. “I don’t want anybody to think that people are hiring undocumented people to save money,” he said. “They hire them because nobody else will do the work they do or work as hard as they do.”
Farm and Hospitality Sectors Hit Hard
According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, undocumented immigrants make up about 4.4 percent of the U.S. workforce overall. But in industries like landscaping, crop production, and animal slaughtering, that number is much higher. These jobs are physically demanding, pay modest wages, and often lack a steady domestic labor supply.
The agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable. “We don’t have enough people to do this work,” said Ron Robbins, a fourth-generation farmer in upstate New York. After a raid on his property in March, his family was left scrambling to keep their farm running. They lost a trusted Guatemalan worker who helped manage the farm’s tourist business.
Kim Skellie of the New York Farm Bureau said deportation fears are taking a toll on dairy farms, which rely on year-round labor. “It’s been a challenge with the current goings on,” he said. “It’s putting a lot of employees on edge.”
Even Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recognized the stakes. “Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans,” she posted on social media. “It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out.”
A Divided Administration
Despite the president’s comments, there’s no full agreement inside the administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a forceful letter to ICE calling for the agency to “dramatically intensify arrest and removal operations nationwide.” She warned that ICE agents would be judged “every day by how many arrests you, your teammates and your office are able to effectuate.”
Noem also stressed that “worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of the president’s deportation plan.” In her words, “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that ICE is not ruling out further raids at farms, restaurants, and hotels. The agency will prioritize locations believed to employ individuals with criminal records, but still warned that “anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation.”
John Sandweg, who served as ICE director during the Obama administration, said the administration will have to raid factories owned by major corporations to hit its 3,000-a-day target. “No doubt some Fortune 500 will get hit,” he warned.
Groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform continue to pressure Trump not to back down. “They should be going after them,” said spokesperson Ira Mehlman. “I don’t think there is going to be a huge swath of the country that will be upset if they bust these companies.”
But in the field, business leaders are hoping for a more flexible approach. “Even if we got all the funding we wanted,” said Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America, “we’d still need to also find some temporary lawful pathways for people to come in and work in construction.”
It’s not clear how long Trump’s exemptions for farms and hotels will last, or how they will be implemented. So far, ICE raids have continued, though some officials have reportedly been told to pause enforcement in these industries unless criminal behavior is involved.
FAM Editor: Remember that Trump always negotiates from the hard core stance first, the stance that is barely acceptable to him, and unacceptable to the other side. And then he can soften as better deals come up.
So Trump started with the statement that everyone has to go, and starts with the criminals. Now he can begin to soften with certain workers and provide benefits to industries who need these workers.
