The calls for a reprieve come after the Trump administration reverses a pause on immigration actions at farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants.
Industry and business groups that depend on immigrant workers are scrambling to respond to President Donald Trump's heightened deportation efforts after winning a partial reprieve on raids last week that was reversed days later.
The administration on Monday walked back a pause on immigration raids at farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants, sending renewed shock waves through the broader business community, parts of which are still pushing the White House for relief from workplace raids.
The pause had come after heavy lobbying efforts from farms, hotels and restaurants, as well as meatpacking, construction, manufacturing, retail, elder care and dairy, among others, said Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy organization that represents Fortune 500 companies on Capitol Hill. Industries have lobbied lawmakers in Congress and White House officials.
"To see such a quick overturn, I think, was disheartening for many. A lot of these business and trade associations that need workforce solutions have been very supportive of the administration," Murray said. "That'll be something they continue to be disappointed about for a while."
The American Farm Bureau Federation, the country's powerful lobbying group for farmers, expressed "concern" that the policy had been reserved. "President Trump recently emphasized agriculture faces unique circumstances that warrant a different approach to enforcement practices," said Zippy Duvall, the federation's president, in a statement on Tuesday.
The policy reversal appeared to take effect immediately. On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided Delta Downs, a horse racing track in Vinton, Louisiana, rounding up nearly 100 equine caretakers, some of whom fled the scene as drones swarmed overhead, according to Eric J. Hamelback, chief executive of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.
Hamelback said he had been under the impression that horse racing had been included in the administration's agricultural carve-out. The group estimates that nearly 75 percent of its workforce is foreign-born, mostly from Latin America.
"The only change that we have to make is to get even more aggressive with both the administration and Congress," Hamelback said, noting that his organization had been lobbying Washington lawmakers and the administration in recent weeks and months -- including a meeting with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) in March.
The pause on workplace raids in agriculture and hospitality went out hours after Trump said in a Thursday post on his media platform Truth Social that he was sympathetic to concerns raised by executives about his deportation plan. Trump wrote last week that "changes are coming" to help "protect our Farmers" from losing workers. However, a White House official told The Washington Post at the time that no actual policy changes were proposed by the White House.
The United Farm Workers union said in a statement that the "pause" didn't make a real difference, because immigration sweeps continued to ripple through farmworker communities on Friday. UFW President Teresa Romero said that as long as immigration enforcement continues where farmworkers live, "some farmworkers will be detained and deported."
On Monday, a coalition of dozens of industry groups celebrated last week's pause in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
"We ... appreciate Trump's pledge that 'changes are coming' and commitment to issuing policies soon to help stabilize and meet critical workforce needs,"
the letter stated. It was signed by construction, retail and health-care industry leaders, including the National Retail Federation and Associated Builders and Contractors, the two groups confirmed to The Post.
The White House's policy reversal appeared to reflect opposing factions within the administration that have pulled the president in two directions on the issue. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump's aggressive immigration policy, privately opposed carving out exceptions for certain industries that rely heavily on workers without legal status, The Post reported Monday. Conversely, Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, stressed to Trump the concerns that farming industry leaders have raised about threats to their workforce. More than 40 percent of agriculture laborers are undocumented, according to 2022 estimates by the Agriculture Department.
ICE has been under pressure from White House officials to increase arrests to deliver on Trump's campaign promise to enact the largest domestic deportation operation in history. Miller said last month that the administration wants ICE to make a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day. In an interview last week, Trump border czar Tom Homan told The Post that arrests had increased to around 2,000 a day.
Some Republican lawmakers maintain cautious optimism that they can push the president and Congress on a solution that allows the workforce crucial to the GOP's base to remain in the country.
At a news conference Tuesday hosted by the American Business Immigration Coalition, a group of employers that has lobbied heavily on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland), chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, praised Trump and said business leaders should not be disheartened by the setback.
"It's a very good sign that the administration realizes that running in parallel with their deportation of criminals and other people who are here illegally, there has to be an effort to figure out how to make sure that we have the workforce we need,"
Harris said.
Others have sounded alarm. "If we don't watch out in this country, we're going to start losing a lot more of our farmers," said Sen. Jim Justice (R-West Virginia). "It will become a crisis like you can't imagine, because we owe so much to the American family farm."