White House Immigration Policy Whiplash
Inside Story of a political roller-coaster ride
Well, that didn't last long.
A halt on immigration enforcement actions aimed at agriculture, restaurants and hotels ordered by President Trump lasted barely five days before it was reversed as abruptly as it was communicated to federal officers.
According to the New York Times, the order was sent in the form of an email by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Assistant Director of Domestic Operations Tatum King on Thursday, June 12, 2025:
Tatum's email followed a TruthSocial post by President Trump earlier that day, which set the sudden policy change in motion:
"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. This is not good. Changes are coming!," -President Donald J Trump (June 12, 2025)
Trump's epiphany, as I explained in an earlier article, followed a dramatic drop in recent polls of public support for his deportation policies after The Washington Examiner reported that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop prioritizing arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records on May 25, 2025.
The record daily arrests Miller and Noem demanded soon followed.
But the TruthSocial post by the President, 18 days later, calling for a halt in ICE operations at farms, restaurants, and hotels, came as a surprise, as did his remarks during a news conference 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. 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)
Despite the order to federal authorities that followed the president's remarks that same day to "hold on immigration investigations/enforcement operations involving agriculture, restaurants, and hotels," the order would be reversed five days later.
That reversal was foreshadowed in yet another TruthSocial post on Sunday night, June 15, 2025, when President Trump issued an order for ICE “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History."
On Monday, June 16, 2025, The Washington Post reported that "Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants."
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin later confirmed that in a statement released to multiple media outlets: “The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” she said.
Axios reported that Trump's initial support for exempting restaurants, hotels, and agriculture from immigration enforcement announcement came after a call passing on concerns from those industries that are heavily dependent on migrant labor from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
According to the Axios report, "White House staffers say she bypassed the president's top immigration policy officials — Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — both of whom were angry about it. Miller, Noem, and a host of immigration hardliners then mounted their own pressure campaign to modify the modified policy. It worked."
Do you support halting immigration enforcement at farms and hotels to focus on arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records instead?
Share your reaction in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
I think it’s a tough job to unravel the tangled mess of decades of lax immigration violation. Policy needs to be quickly and thoroughly developed that can flex with unintended consequences while continuing record deportations.
When going to restaurants and farming etc. Ppl/immigrants need to have their ID/visa/documentation.H2A is the responsibilty of the farmer/landowner. There have been criminals found on all these properties.