Senate Republicans were broadly supportive of the Trump administration’s shift away from immigration raids on farm and hospitality workers. When the administration reversed course, they said they were OK with that, too.
President Donald Trump has shifted back and forth on deportation efforts over the past week. His administration carried out raids on farms and hotels, prompting backlash from the industries. He said he’d create a carve-out. Immigration agents largely paused those raids.
After a report Monday evening that the raids were back on, some Senate Republicans acknowledged the situation had been confusing. But overall they said they trusted the president and his deputies on immigration policy.
“We’re taking out the illegals. That’s what we’re doing. President Trump’s made that very clear,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday.
The day before, ahead of the news that raids on farms and hotels would continue, Mullin said he was “good with” exemptions for agriculture and hospitality workers. “The president understands the need of the workforce as good as any president we’ve ever had,” he added.
Trump said his administration would carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. In an effort to boost deportation numbers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increasingly targeted workplaces, conducting raids in industries like agriculture that hire large numbers of undocumented workers, which have led to arrests of people without criminal records.
Meanwhile, administration officials have said that migrants with criminal records are the priority. Senate Republicans said that border czar Tom Homan told them as much last week.
Sen. John Hoeven, a member of the Senate agriculture committee, said Monday that since the administration was prioritizing the deportation of criminals, decentering agriculture or hospitality workers would be “a continuation of exactly what Homan is saying: ‘Look, we’re focused first and foremost on people with a criminal record.’”
The next day, after the administration reversed its guidance on farms and hotels, Hoeven said he needed more information but still trusted that the president was focused on crime.
“We need some more information from the president on how he intends to approach farm workers,” Hoeven said. “I know that as Tom Homan said, that the focus is on finding people with criminal records, so I know that’s clearly the president’s intent as well.”
Some lawmakers acknowledged that the flip has been confusing.
“I think that they should concentrate on the people that are here illegally that have committed crimes, but again, right now, the policy is up in the air,” Sen. John Boozman told NOTUS on Tuesday. “It’s hard to comment on something that you don’t really know what they’re planning exactly on doing.”
“I’m not going to comment on it till he finally decides,” the senator said.
The Trump administration has since said that aggressive immigration enforcement will continue, and argued that the president’s comments last week weren’t meant to indicate that certain industries would be shielded.
“Just like President Trump promised, we will deliver the single largest Mass Deportation Program in history by expanding our efforts in the epicenters of illegal immigration — dangerous, Democrat run sanctuary cities,” a White House official said in a statement. “President Trump remains committed to enforcing federal immigration law — anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation.”
The Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for implementing the president’s immigration directives, hasn’t said much, other than that it will follow orders.
“We 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,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, said in a statement.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
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