The Trump administration has reopened arrests of immigrant workers at hotels, restaurants and agricultural businesses, backtracking on the brief reprieve they got after President Donald Trump stated they were necessary, good, longtime workers whose jobs were almost “impossible” to replace.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement Tuesday “there will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts.”
Worksite enforcement “remains a cornerstone” of its immigration enforcement efforts, which McLaughlin said “target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”
The announcement backpedals on Trump’s statement last week on social media that “changes are coming” after farmers and hotel and leisure business employers had complained 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.”
Just six days ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement paused arrests at worksites in agriculture industries, including fisheries and meatpacking plants, restaurants and hotels, according to an internal policy memo obtained by NBC News last Thursday.
