Farms, hotels and restaurants that rely on immigrant workers are urging the Trump administration to spare their vital industries from immigration raids.
The pressure comes as confusion swirls around whether President Trump will exempt some businesses from efforts to arrest and deport immigrants living illegally in the United States.
Last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would focus his immigration crackdown on criminals, not farmers. Those workers, along with people employed in hotel and leisure businesses, raised concerns that his administration’s “aggressive policy on immigration” is taking away jobs that are “almost impossible to replace,” the post said.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed to The Times on Saturday that immigration enforcement would primarily focus on people accused of violent crimes, a move that signaled the agency would back away from workplace raids at hotels, restaurants and farms.
But, this week, further guidance from DHS leadership seemed to reverse that directive, causing confusion even among its internal ranks on what the policy is.
Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, speaks at a May 21 news conference in Washington.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
“Criminal aliens in this country should know there’s no safe haven for them. There’s no safe harbor, whether it be a church, or a courthouse, or a worksite, we will come for you. We will arrest you. And you will be deported,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a Tuesday interview with Newsmax, a right-wing news channel.
The conflicting messaging shows how the Trump administration is trying to thread a needle, between appeasing the farming and hospitality industries and meeting the White House’s aggressive deportation goals.
Fear has rippled across immigrant communities since early June, when federal agents raided several businesses including Home Depot and Ambiance Apparel in Los Angeles, sparking days of protests against the immigration crackdown.
California’s economy, the fourth-largest in the world, is expected to contract later this year because immigration raids and tariffs have rattled the hospitality, agriculture, construction and other key industries, UCLA said in a forecast released Wednesday.
The California Chamber of Commerce said that given the fluidity of current events, the group doesn’t know how the raids will impact the state’s economy. The Chamber hasn’t had conversations with the Trump administration, but has been advocating for immigration reform in Washington.
“The current situation is bad for our communities and bad for businesses,” CalChamber President and Chief Executive Jennifer Barrera said in a statement last week. “And there is broad consensus that those who have lived and worked here for years, without engaging in criminal behavior, should be given a pathway to legally continue to do so without fear.”
California is home to roughly 2.28 million undocumented immigrants, representing 8% of workers in the state, according to a June report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute andUC Merced. There are roughly 10.6 million immigrants in California.
Undocumented workers generated nearly 5% of California’s gross domestic product — the monetary value of final goods and services — and contributed more than $23 billion annually in local, state and federal taxes, the report said.
Here’s how key industries are reacting to Trump’s immigration raids:
Farmworkers, fearful of raids, don’t want to risk going to work, fueling a labor shortage according to a representative of California Farm Bureau.
(Al Seib / For The Times)
Farms
Farmers are grappling with mixed signals about whether Trump would grant them a reprieve amid the summer harvest season. Some groups advocating for the industry are emphasizing that food prices could rise for families if there are not enough workers to harvest crops.
“The current approach to federal immigration enforcement is having a disruptive effect on California’s rural communities and the farmers, ranchers, workers and families who live and work there,” Bryan Little, senior director of policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau, said in a statement.
Some farmworkers, fearful of raids — partly because of false alarms spread on social media — don’t want to risk going to work, fueling a labor shortage, Little said in an interview.
If immigration enforcement activities continue from July to September during the peak of the summer harvest season, he said, it will be tougher to get food onto the shelves of grocery stores.
Chuck Conner, president and chief executive of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, said in a statement on Tuesday that he’s “deeply concerned” that immigration enforcement would hit farms and other agricultural businesses.
“This directly contradicts the commitments made by President Trump to America’s farmers and ranchers, first in April and again last week,” he said in the statement.
More than a quarter of California’s agricultural industry is undocumented. The GDP from the industry would contract by 14% without this workforce, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and the UC Merced report said.
Community members take part in a June 12 protest against federal immigration agents staying at hotels in the Pasadena area.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Hotels
The hospitality industry told administration officials that it faced severe labor shortages under the current policy of aggressive immigration crackdowns. It is lobbying for more temporary visas for hotel workers.
Rosanna Maietta, president and chief executive of the American Hotel & Lodging Assn., said in a statement that the association has held numerous meetings with administration officials to “convey our acute workforce shortage challenges and underscore the importance of a strong hospitality and tourism sector.”
The group plans to continue these discussions along with supporting employers and their workers.
About 10% of all workers in the leisure and hospitality industry nationwide, as well as the restaurant industry, are unauthorized immigrants, according to economists and organizations such as the Center for Migration Studies, a think tank in New York.
Michael Clemens, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, has said that these workers fill crucial roles. They are “key ingredients” without which other jobs in the industry would cease to exist, he said.
“We have clear evidence that mass deportations will be generally disruptive to the economy and to the U.S. labor market — and specifically hospitality will be hard hit,” Clemens said. “Their labor is a crucial factor of production, and it’s that production that generates other jobs in the sector. That’s something I wish everyone understood.”
Several downtown restaurants remained boarded up this week because of the unrest due to ICE immigration raids in Los Angeles. Many in the industry call immigrants the “lifeblood” of the restaurant industry.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Restaurants
Groups representing the restaurant industry have been stressing the important role immigrants play in their workforce too.
“There is a lot of uncertainty about federal immigration policies instilling fear in immigrant communities, whether or not they have legal status, and, in some cases, it is having a chilling effect on restaurants’ team members and guest traffic,” Jot Condie, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Assn., said in a statement.
Condie has called immigrants the “lifeblood” of the restaurant industry, noting in a statement last week that “immigrants power our workforce and have an enormous positive impact on our economy.”
Trump’s campaign promise to expand mass deportations put diners and restaurants on edge before the immigration raids.
In February, restaurants such as Teddy’s Red Tacos in Southern California said they saw a drop in sales after Trump announced immigration actions to fulfill his campaign pledge of expanding mass deportations. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed two Italian restaurants in San Diego.
Roughly 1 million of an estimated 8.3 million workers without legal status in the United States have restaurant industry jobs, according to the Center For Migration Studies.
