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The Department of Homeland Security on Monday reversed course on guidance limiting immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants, according to a source familiar with the discussions — the latest example of whiplash for an agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

During a morning field call on Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told leaders representing field offices across the country that they must continue to conduct raids at worksite locations, the source said — a reversal from guidance issued days earlier under pressure from certain industries that rely on migrant workers.

“Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability,” Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Tuesday. “These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”

The call and directive were first reported by The Washington Post.

ICE has been under tremendous pressure to meet White House-imposed quotas on immigration arrests. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told ICE officials last month that they needed to arrest at least 3,000 people a day. ICE has been averaging around 2,000 people a day.

Trump has directed his ire at Democratic-led cities, calling on Sunday for ICE to “expand efforts” in “the Democrat Power Center.”

Speaking to reporters as he returned from the G7 summit in Canada, Trump addressed reports that ICE had resumed enforcement actions in locations such as hotels and bars.

“We’ll look everywhere, but I think the biggest problem is inner cities,” Trump said.

ICE has stepped up sweeps in recent weeks on industries that rely heavily on immigrant workers. That includes a local construction company in Exeter, Pennsylvania; construction sites in Brownsville, Texas; and a flood control project in New Orleans. ICE arrested about 40 people in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, two prominent vacation spots in Massachusetts, last month.

The enforcement operations have created a chilling effect on industries heavily reliant on immigrant workforces, such as farms and hotels, which the president appeared to acknowledge last week.

“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 said on Truth Social. “We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

The administration’s immigration crackdown sparked protests in Los Angeles earlier this month, which prompted the president to mobilize both National Guard troops and Marines to deal with demonstrations over federal raids in the city.

Protests have expanded across the country, culminating in scores of anti-Trump demonstrators taking to the streets in “No Kings” protests nationwide over the weekend.

The Department of Homeland Security has reversed guidelines issued last week that instructed immigration officers not to raid farms, hotels, and restaurants in the latest about-face from the Trump administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told staff on Monday that agents must continue to raid agricultural businesses, hotels, and restaurants, two unnamed sources told The Washington Post. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin also confirmed the latest guidance to Fox News.

“There’s not been a change in posture,” McLaughlin claimed in a Monday interview on The Story with Martha MacCallum. “We can continue to enforce the law. Our worksite enforcement operations are really tip of the spear to getting these criminal, legal aliens out of our country.” ADVERTISEMENT

But even MacCallum appeared confused by the DHS spokesperson’s claim that there was no change in posture.

Last week, as protests against immigration raids spread across the country, President Donald Trump conceded in a Truth Social post that his sweeping deportation agenda was hurting businesses in the agriculture, hotel, and leisure 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 wrote. “This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

The New York Times later reported that senior ICE official Tatum King instructed agents to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”

But new reporting from The Post found that the DHS, ICE’s parent agency, decided to reverse course—again—after learning that the White House did not support King’s guidance.

On Sunday night, Trump himself flip-flopped on the matter, instructing ICE agents to double down on raids in blue cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The administration has been struggling to meet the quota of 3,000 arrests per day set by Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top aides and the architect of his aggressive immigration policy.

The Department of Homeland Security is reversing course on exempting farms and hotels from immigration raids, according to a report.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told agency leaders in a call Monday that officers must continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels, and restaurants, according to unnamed sources, The Washington Post reported. The call took place at 11 a.m. on Monday with representatives from 30 field offices across the country.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations field office supervisors learned on Sunday about a likely reversal of the exemption policy after DHS leadership said that the White House didn’t support it, according to a Post source.

On Thursday, a DHS official sent an email telling agents to “hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”

The email followed President Trump’s post on Truth Social that day, in which he wrote, “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.

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

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller privately opposed the exemptions while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was pushing for them as the farming industry expressed concerns about losing workers, according to Post sources.

Trump appeared to change his tune on Sunday.

“Our Nation’s ICE Officers have shown incredible strength, determination, and courage as they facilitate a very important mission, the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” he continued.

Workplace immigration raids have resulted in significant numbers of illegal immigrants being found, detained, and deported.

“There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Monday. “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.”

Donald Trump has abandoned his brief immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) reprieve for farm and hotel workers, ordering the agency’s raids in those sectors to resume after hardliners crushed a pause that lasted just four days.

The whiplash reversal, first reported by the Washington Post, exposes the dysfunction gripping the president’s deportation agenda, where competing advisers battle over policy while Trump lurches between contradictory positions.

“The president has been incredibly clear,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday. “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine Ice’s efforts.”

The flip-flop also follows Trump’s erratic pattern on major policies – from threatening then retreating on mass global tariffs to wavering on federal spending cuts – as different factions fight for his ear.

Trump first blinked last Thursday, posting on Truth Social that his “very aggressive” raids were hurting farmers and hotels. The next day, Ice officials reportedly told staff in an internal email to largely lay off raids and arrests in the agricultural, hotel and restaurant industries.

But now, according to the Post, immigration hawks led by the deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, crushed the pause – after the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, had secured the temporary reprieve amid industry pressure.

By Sunday, Trump had publicly reversed course entirely, ordering agents via a Truth Social post to deliver what he called the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History” – focusing particularly on America’s largest cities, almost all being run by Democrats.

The administration desperately wants workplace raids to hit Miller’s target of 3,000 daily arrests. Daily arrests have been stuck at about 2,000, according to a recent DHS statement.

Single operations at meatpacking plants can net hundreds of detentions.

Yet Trump’s brief wobble revealed his unease with the economic fallout. Undocumented immigrants make up 4.6% of the US workforce – more than 7 million people concentrated in agriculture, hospitality and construction, according to the American Immigration Council.

Labor groups like United Farm Workers (UFW), which represent a large number of immigrant workers, dismissed the temporary pause on workplace raids in California as never actually being in place.

“As long as Border Patrol and ICE are allowed to sweep through farm worker communities making chaotic arrests the way they did TODAY, they are still hunting down farm workers,” UFW posted on Instagram on Saturday. “If President Trump is actually in charge, he needs to prove it.”

The Trump administration is backing away from its earlier instructions to halt immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants, according to reports.

Homeland Security officials instructed agency leadership in a call Monday to resume raids at those businesses — which have higher proportions of illegal migrants in their workforce — following the days-long pause, according to the Washington Post and CNN.

President Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that his mass deportation campaign was taking its toll on the agricultural and hospitality industries.

5 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a man from a car stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. REUTERS

5 A demonstrator is detained as protesters block ICE agents from entering a building in Chicago. REUTERS

That same day, ICE agents across the country received an order to “please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” according to the New York Times.

“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.

5 An agent passes by meat being prepared during a raid by ICE. via REUTERS

“This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming,” he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisors were alerted to a possible reversal of the pause on Sunday after learning the White House didn’t support the effort, a source told the Washington Post.

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A major divide has reportedly formed within the Trump administration over the worksite raids.

“Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans,” wrote Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on X Sunday. “It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out.”

5 Claudia Nunez holds her 1-year-old daughter, Arisbeth, while her husband, Yoni, talks with an attorney before attending a scheduled check-in with ICE. REUTERS

All the while, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has further pushed ICE to meet the 3,000 daily arrest quota the administration has set.

“[W]e must dramatically intensify arrest and removal operations nationwide,” she wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. “This is a nonnegotiable national priority.”

5 Federal agents stand with workers during a raid by ICE in Omaha, Nebraska. via REUTERS

ICE agents will be judged “every day by how many arrests you, your teammates and your office are able to effectuate,” she wrote, adding, “Failure is not an option.”

She also said worksite sweeps are “a cornerstone” of the mass deportation push, adding, “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts.”