Trump About-Face on Immigration Arrests?
"Changes are coming!" President says
I will admit that when I first saw the statement (see below) attributed to President Trump on truthsocial.com Thursday morning, I thought his account had been hacked:
"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." it stated.
But, as more posts appeared on that platform and that one remained, it became clear the post was genuine. Even more surprising was the declaration by the president that:
"This is not good. Changes are coming!" -President Trump on truthsocial.com
Trump's surprising about-face (more on likely reasons for that in a moment) followed reports by KABC-TV that federal immigration authorities this week have been chasing farmworkers through the strawberry fields of Ventura County, California.
This was confirmed in a post to x.com by the FBI that its agents were on the ground in Ventura County, supporting the immigration arrests of the farmworkers:
In addition to the President, the farm raids were condemned by California's US Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla (who made news of his own Thursday, by being forcibly removed from a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles then tackled and handcuffed in an outside hallway after he attempted to speak at the event):
But, back to the central premise of this article: What explains President Trump's sudden condemnation of the immigration arrests of farmworkers and hotel workers as "not good" with a promise that "changes are coming"?
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday showed President Trump's immigration policies are continuing to lose the support of most registered voters, dropping five points from April, to 43 percent.
A CBS News/YouGov poll released Monday found that if people don't think dangerous criminals are the focus of Trump's deportation efforts, support drops dramatically. As a result, while most of those polled liked Trump's "deportation goals," a slightly larger majority disliked Trump's "deportation approach."
Remember, ICE had been prioritizing the arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records until May 20, 2025. On that day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called ICE’s top 50 field heads to Washington, D.C, for an "emergency meeting" where he berated them for that approach.
"‘What do you mean you’re going after criminals?," The Washington Examiner reported, quoting an unnamed attendee. Instead, “Stephen Miller (said he) wants everybody arrested. Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?" he demanded.
That attendee told the Examiner that "Miller eviscerated everyone. ‘You guys aren’t doing a good job. You’re horrible leaders.’ He just ripped into everybody."
The Examiner reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined the meeting to reinforce the new marching orders Miller handed down to ICE: aggressively and immediately ramp up the numbers of daily arrests (then totalling in the hundreds) to as many as "3,000 people a day" (as Miller told Fox News nine days later)."
ICE complied, producing record numbers of arrests 15 days later:
They got there exactly as Miller demanded: By arresting those who were easist to find, instead of spending time and manpower prioritizing criminals.
One tactic involves arresting migrants without criminal records who had been cooperating with authorities to voluntarily appear for a hearing, and arresting them at the courthouse when they comply.
But mostly, federal authorities are targeting job sites where undocumented workers are most likely to be found:
Including, as President Trump is now complaining about, at farms:
President Trump's "truthsocial" statement is most likely in response to the drop in public support caused by de-prioritizing the arrests of those with criminal records.
However, now that he lives in Florida (when he's not at the White House), it is safe to assume he's also getting an earful from those among that state's largest employers (tourism and agriculture).
That could explain his newfound concern about how "our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from ... our great farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business."
The New York Times reported that following his truthsocial.com post, President Trump made his concerns clear during a Thursday news conference:
“Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years. 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 do that to our farmers and leisure, too, hotels. We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.” -President Donald J. Trump (June 12, 2025)
Although the New York Times reported that President Trump "later said there would be an 'order' soon," it remains to be seen how his promise that "Changes are coming!" will ultimately impact immigration enforcement at those job sites.
Should immigration enforcement at job sites such as farms and hotels be deprioritized to allow federal agents to concentrate on those with criminal records instead?
Share your reaction in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
The prioritizing of criminals is the correct approach. Folks who have been here for 20 years are not high priority, but ultimately they all need to leave, preferably voluntarily, and apply to come back with visas.
I just have to chime in here. I live in Mexico. I can't do anything here. Not buy a home, open a bank acct. Get health insurance. Why? Bcuz I am not a citizen. So I became a dual citizen. Why does our country allow illegal immigrants to live as if they r citizens? The church i attend here, is filled with deported people. Most had criminal records, but there is one lady I so sympathize with. She got married to an american citizen, had 4 children born in LA area. Was working on her immigration papers when they told her to go to a city in Mexico by the border n they nvr let her back in. 3 yrs later, 1 daughter graduated from jr. High, another from high school n her husband is mom n dad, while she waits to be pardoned. Now, I am not saying she is not at fault. But why was she allowed to make a life in the US in the 1st place? Cases like hers abound. I blame our immigration laws. If ur going to allow people to make a life in the US then give them a path to citizenship.