White House border czar Tom Homan sought to bring some clarity to President Trump’s immigration enforcement policy, telling reporters Thursday that ICE will still do worksite enforcement but has been told to focus on cases where migrants are part of a broader criminal scheme.
That means farms or hotels that press illegal immigrants into forced labor, or where they’re part of tax evasion, are still considered juicy targets, Mr. Homan said.
He also said the administration will continue to surge U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel into sanctuary jurisdictions for enforcement while leaving other places relatively unscathed.
Mr. Homan said there’s a logic behind targeting sanctuaries, which limit cooperation in turning over criminal migrants to ICE.
“We don’t have that problem like in the state of Florida where most of the county sheriffs accept our detainers and they give us the illegal aliens when they’re done with them,” he said.
Mr. Trump is experiencing an inflection point on immigration.
During last year’s campaign, he promised mass deportations, ousting the migrants that came during the Biden years and specifically targeting those with heinous criminal records.
But those goals are coming into conflict, with it becoming clear that the administration can’t achieve the kinds of deportation numbers Mr. Trump wants by focusing on particularly bad criminals, particularly with the resistance of sanctuaries to cooperate.
Businesses have also begun to howl over consequences of Mr. Trump’s enforcement operations, with farmers and hotel owners saying their labor force, heavily comprised of migrants, is afraid of showing up for work.
Mr. Trump has promised leniency for farmers, though what that looks like remains to be seen.
An ICE directive last week ordered a pause on farm and hotel worksite enforcement operations, but Mr. Homan said Thursday those remain targets.
“The message is clear enough, that we’re going to continue doing worksite enforcement operations even in farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first,” he said.
