The Trump administration has lifted a short-lived pause on immigration raids and arrests at farms, hotels and restaurants just a few days after putting restrictions in place to limit enforcement targeting those areas.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership told field officers during a call on June 16, 2025, that it would roll back the directive issued last week that largely paused raids on the businesses.
According to the sources, ICE officials were told they could continue carrying out worksite enforcement operations to arrest unauthorized immigrants at farms, hotels and restaurants.
More than ever, the Trump administration is doubling down on mass deportations, leaving U.S. employers scrambling to understand what’s coming next.
Trump paused ICE raids
The Trump administration had directed ICE to halt arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels. To that effect, on June 12, 2025, ICE senior officer, Tatum King sent an email suspending worksite enforcement operations to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations.
The guidance read thus, “Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”
The email explained that investigations involving “human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.” But that agents were not to make arrests of “noncriminal collaterals,” a reference to people who are undocumented but who are not known to have committed any crime.
Even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the guidance and said “they 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.”
The pause applied to the industries which relied heavily on labor from immigrants, many of whom are in the U.S. unlawfully.
Why did Trump pause it?
Nearly half the nation’s two million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as do many dairy and meatpacking workers.
There were growing concerns among industry leaders that President Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration was spooking their foreign-born workers, many of whom are in the country illegally or on temporary humanitarian programs his administration has sought to curtail.
On the morning of June 11, 2025, President Trump received a call from Brooke Rollins, his secretary of agriculture, who relayed this growing sense of alarm from the heartland.
According to her, farmers and agriculture groups were increasingly uneasy about his immigration crackdown. Federal agents had begun to aggressively target work sites in recent weeks, with the goal of increasing the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Farmers rely on immigrants to work long hours, Ms. Rollins said. She told the president that farm groups had been warning her that their employees would stop showing up to work out of fear, potentially crippling the agricultural industry.
After the call, President Trump made a post the next morning on Truth Social. He acknowledged that his immigration policies were hurting the farming and hotel industries.
“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,” he said.
He continued, “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have, maybe, what they’re supposed to have, maybe not. 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. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA,” he added.
It was against this background and following protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms and businesses, that the directive ordering the pause was issued.
Now why has Trump reversed it?
Trump won back the White House promising to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully, and as such, the scaling back of worksite immigration enforcement was at odds with that vow to carry out such a record number of deportations.
To put it more plainly, ICE aims to deport 1 million immigrants per year, but so far from January 20 to the first week of June, has only arrested around 100,000 people suspected of violating immigration law according to the White House which amounts to an average of 750 arrests per day – far short of what Trump needs to deport millions of people.
To fix this, top White House aide Stephen Miller, pressed to escalate operations in late May. Miller set a quota for at least 3,000 arrests per day and told ICE leadership to target anyone without legal status.
As a result of Miller’s statement, arrests shot up to over 2,000 a day, and in recent days and weeks, ICE officials have conducted operations at restaurants, factories and business across the country which has led to protests in Los Angeles and other cities.
But Trump’s pause had put a strain on it. ICE field office heads had raised concerns they could not meet the quota without raids at the businesses that had been exempted. One DHS official said that agents had felt the pressure for more arrests and that the guidance to pause took them by surprise.
However, it has not been made crystal clear why June 12’s directive was reversed. But it still appears ICE officials are confused and would need to tread carefully with raids on the previously exempted businesses.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE would continue to make arrests at worksites. “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” she said in a statement.
And in a letter to ICE officials, she said, “We promised the largest deportation operation in history and that is exactly what we will do. Your performance will be judged every day by how many arrests you, your teammates and your office are able to effectuate. Failure is not an option.”
People are confused
President Trump is sending conflicting messages about his immigration crackdown — first offering relief for industries that rely on immigrant labor, then calling for stepped-up enforcement.
The situation has left business owners unclear on exactly what the Trump policy is, just days after the president said “changes are coming” to help those in the farming and hospitality industries whose employees are too scared to show up for work.
President of the Nisei Farmers League in the Central Valley of California, Manuel Cunha Jr. said in a statement, “One minute you have a message saying they won’t go after agriculture, the next something else.”
Mr. Cunha said this was causing “tremendous havoc” in the country’s largest agricultural region. “First thing this morning I got calls from my growers asking, ‘Does this mean they are going to come after the workers in the fields?’” Mr. Cunha said.
Others are left wondering whether the workers they depend on will be targeted, and what liability they themselves might face if immigration officials show up at their workplace. Michael Marsh, CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said, “We’ve got a serious issue if we have almost a million of our workers that are going to be subject to deportation. Because if that’s the case, and they are picked up and they are gone, we can’t fill those positions.”
Farm industry fears escalated last week when ICE detentions and arrests of workers were reported at California farms, a Nebraska meatpacking plant,and a New Mexico dairy. Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association said, “The people pushing for these raids that target farms and feedyards and dairies have no idea how farms operate,” adding that the raids make operations more difficult in their heavily immigrant-dependent industries.
As it stands right now, many employers of labor are in a precarious position: unsure if they’re in the clear or on the front lines of federal immigration enforcement.
What to do if ICE shows up to your place of business?
If you are a business owner and an employer, then you should take proactive steps to prepare for possible visits from immigration enforcement, which could take the form of ICE raids or site audits.
An ICE audit generally involves a Notice of Inspection rather than a search warrant. On the other hand, an ICE raid involves a search warrant, and agents will likely demand immediate access to the items listed in the warrant. Just remember, a notice to inspect employment records requires advance notice, and a physical raid requires a warrant.
Nonetheless, in either case, it is important to understand your rights and responsibilities if ICE agents arrive at your worksite.
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Audit your employment eligibility forms
Ensuring your Form I-9s are complete and in compliance with the law is the best defense to claims of knowingly hiring illegal workers. Now is the time to conduct an internal review of your Form I-9 records. Make sure all forms are:
- Dutifully completed and signed by both employee and employer.
- Properly stored.
- Check for errors and correct as needed.
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Request to see a warrant when ICE agents show up
ICE needs a judicial (court-issued) warrant to enter non-public areas of your business. An administrative warrant (Form I-200 or I-205) alone does not grant that right. You can request to see the warrant and confirm its validity before granting access. Without a warrant, you are not required to open up your workplace to ICE agents.
Agents may present a Notice of Inspection for I-9s which requires advance notice and which gives you three business days to gather the documents requested. And before providing the documents, insist upon a receipt identifying all written documentation removed from the business by ICE agents.
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Train HR and Supervisors on protocols
First off, consider having an appointed spokesperson to meet with ICE agents.
Next, ensure your HR team and supervisors know what to do if:
- ICE contacts your business by phone or in person.
- An employee is detained or arrested.
- A raid occurs during working hours.
You may consider having a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to reduce panic and ensure legal compliance in high-stress scenarios.
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Communicate carefully with employees
- Remind workers of their right to remain silent if ICE arrives on-site.
- Inform them to always be respectful to agents.
- Encourage employees to keep personal documentation up to date.
- Reassure staff that your company is monitoring the situation and values their contributions.
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Stay updated and connected
Enforcement priorities are changing fast. Stay plugged in by:
- Subscribing to alerts from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or industry associations.
- Following news from trusted immigration policy outlets like The Law Offices of Anne Z. Sedki immigration law blog.
- Consulting with a qualified immigration attorney if you’re unsure how federal changes apply to your business. You also need to speak with one immediately if ICE comes to your business.
Speak with an Immigration attorney if you have concerns
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement strategy is evolving in real time. For now, there are no guarantees that any sector is off-limits — even those that were briefly reprieved.
Your best course of action is to prepare, stay informed, and ensure your workplace is in full compliance with immigration law.
Consider working with an immigration attorney or compliance specialist to review your records if you employ a large or at-risk workforce.
If you’re struggling with how to prepare for a possible ICE raid, The Law Offices of Anne Z. Sedki is here to assist you with compliance and strategy. Contact us on +15169637018 or fill out this form to book a meeting with an attorney.