The Trump administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to largely pause raids and arrests on farms, hotels, and restaurants, multiple outlets reported.

The New York Times cited an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.

ICE directed to pause immigration arrests at farms, hotels and restaurants, sources tell CBS News. https://t.co/Y4tmoLr8j5

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 14, 2025

From The New York Times:

The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms and businesses. It also came as Mr. Trump made a rare concession this week that his crackdown was hurting American farmers and hospitality businesses.

The guidance was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations.

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“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” he wrote in the message.

The email explained that investigations involving “human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.” But it said — crucially — 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.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the guidance.

🚨Update: President Trump has instructed ICE and other immigration officers to temporarily pause arrests at farms, hotels and restaurants, per WSJ. pic.twitter.com/Awm2kHo0Cu

— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) June 14, 2025

“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,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, 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 said earlier this week.

“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!” he added.

Per Reuters:

The order to scale back U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids came from Trump himself, the person familiar with the matter said, and appears to rein in a late-May demand by top White House aide Stephen Miller for more aggressive sweeps.

Trump was not aware of the extent of the enforcement push and “once it hit him, he pulled it back,” the person said.

The new directive, issued on Thursday, still allows for investigations into serious crimes such as human trafficking.

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