(NewsNation) — As anti-ICE protests continue to flare up across the country, the Trump administration is readjusting its massive deportation campaign.
Department of Homeland Security sources tell NewsNation that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been directed to largely pause raids and arrests on American farms and in hotels and restaurants.
The move comes as the president expressed alarm about the impact of aggressive enforcement on these industries. President Trump said business owners are reporting that immigration raids are removing longtime workers who are difficult to replace.
The New York Times reported senior ICE official Tatum King wrote to regional leaders earlier this week to halt investigations into the agricultural industry, including meatpacking plants, and also restaurants and hotels, unless they involve serious offenses such as human trafficking, money laundering and drug smuggling.
King reportedly told agents to avoid arresting “noncriminal collaterals,” or undocumented people who have not taken part in those illegal activities.
On Tuesday, NewsNation was on the ground in Omaha exclusively observing ICE conducting its largest workplace enforcement operation in Nebraska since Trump took office.
Dozens of undocumented immigrants allegedly were working at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha. Many attempted to scatter when officials arrived at the food plant with a warrant, with some hiding in the rafters. One individual even allegedly pulled a box cutter on an agent.
The owner told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley he did everything he could to hire employees legally and now must rehire an entire workforce.
President Trump’s decision to pause raids in certain industries comes as six Hispanic Republican members of Congress have sent a letter to the head of ICE, urging the agency to focus on removing criminals during nationwide operations.
“While we do agree that we are a nation of laws — and that all who crossed our borders illegally are subject to those laws — there are levels of priority that must be considered when it comes to immigration enforcement,” the letter reads in part.
The pause in raids for certain industries could cause a rift inside the Republican Party as some lawmakers push for an increase in deportations.
Congressman Thomas Massie, R-W. Va., said on X, “Under Trump’s new immigration enforcement policy, if you’re an illegal alien, I guess you just have to switch jobs to a restaurant, hotel, farm, or meat packing plant?”
Despite Trump’s shift on deportation policy, the ICE daily target of 3,000 arrests remains the same. It’s unclear how the agency will hit those numbers with this new announcement. Sources tell NewsNation there aren’t enough criminal migrants to meet that aggressive target.
Jason Houser, a former ICE chief of staff in the Biden administration, said the Trump administration’s change in strategy is the result of getting pushback from the business community and agriculture industry.
“It’s clearly a very large pivot, very quickly, on the short period of time the administration has been in the White House,” he told “NewsNation Prime” Sunday. “Clearly, the sort of policies of mass arrests, targeting non-criminals, shifting to quotas arrests, is something that’s not in the community’s interest, it’s not in the interest of our economy, and it’s not in the interest of public safety.”
