Trump, in reversal, may exempt farms and hotels from immigration raids

President Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that he may exempt the agriculture and hotel industries from his nationwide immigration crackdown.

President Donald Trump said on social media Thursday that he is willing to exempt the agriculture and hotel industries from his nationwide immigration crackdown. The surprise move came after executives in both industries complained to Trump about losing reliable, longtime immigrant workers in immigration raids and struggling to replace them.

“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.

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

The New York Times reported the next day that a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official had ordered a pause in immigration raids at agricultural businesses, meat packing plants, restaurants and hotels.

The senior ICE official also advised agents to stop arresting undocumented people who are not known to have committed crimes. Agents were told to continue to investigate and detain undocumented people with criminal backgrounds, according to the Times.