Trump Admin Again Changes Course, Goes Back To Targeting Hotel And Farmworkers In Immigration Raids

The Trump administration appears to have again changed course on its approach to raids on some migrant workers, especially those working in industries that could be more heavily impacted by enforcement operations.

Concretely, the Washington Post detailed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told staff that it was reversing the guidance given last week. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told agency leaders that officers must continue conducting the raids.

"There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE's efforts," said DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Monday. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability," she added.

Just days prior, DHS said there would be a change in deportation policies after Trump suggested so. In a publication on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said "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."

"In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!" he added.

Following the statement, Tricia McLaughlin said the agency "will follow the president's direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America's streets."

However, the administration seems to have changed course again and move to ramp up deportations. Last month, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, threatened in a meeting with ICE leadership to fire senior officials if the agency did not start making 3,000 arrests per day, according to NBC News.

The number of migrants at an ICE detention in the U.S. last week stood at 51,302, 30% more than when Trump took office in late January 2025, according to Noticias Telemundo. That number, however, is expected to increase after the Department of Homeland Security reported that it arrested over 2,000 people on different days of the week. ICE only has enough funding to detain 41,500 detainees at a time.

In this context, ICE is running overbudget and could run out of cash as soon as next month, according to a new report. Concretely, Axios detailed that the agency is already $1 billion overbudget by one estimate with three months to go until the end of this fiscal year.

The scenario, the outlet added, makes negotiations over President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" more urgent as it contemplates $75 billion for ICE over the next five years. Should the president not get his way, he could declare a national emergency and redirect money from other governmental agencies. Such a scenario took place in 2020 after he diverted almost $4 billion from the Pentagon to fund border wall construction.