President Donald Trump announced Sunday evening that he has directed ICE officers to expand deportations from cities.
“We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in Americans’ largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” he declared on TruthSocial.com. He added:
These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.
The announcement comes amid a broad public rejection of Trump’s rescission decision to scale back enforcement against the use of illegal migrants in the hotel, farming, and food sector, mostly outside cities.
The announcement did not reverse the rollback or set conditions for employers who want to avoid the loss of illegal workers.
Trump’s supporters tweeted their responses:
“This language is purposefully dodging agricultural and hotel illegal aliens,” said X user SammileeTee. “We see through it. Not enough. The message is EVERY SINGLE ILLEGAL.”
“ALL illegal aliens,” responded delite_dixie. “No Chinese or Indian immigrants either. No visas. Deport them ALL.”
“Cancel all foreign worker and student visas too. And no special treatment to farm, restaurant, big tech, and hotel industries. Deport all illegals!” said another X user.
Some Democrats slammed Trump’s statement as “politicizing law enforcement,” even though many Democrat-run cities hinder federal deportation enforcement. For example, Chuck Todd, a former NBC TV host, said:
He’s openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement. This will not help ICE’s image because he’s asking them to perform a political task. Throw in the decision to shield the red states from law enforcement and he’s clearly hoping to provoke an angry response. At a moment when we need a president to de-escalate, he does the opposite.
The partial rollback was pushed by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on behalf of agriculture investors and was transmitted to ICE personnel via low-level managers. The New York Times reported on Friday:
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.
“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.
Like many other politicians, Trump is zig-zagging between vital factions in his political party. Investors, employers, donors, and their lobbyists are very influential in Washington, DC, but politicians also know that their future depends on the turnout of supporters in the next election, now due in November 2026.
Amid opposition from the GOP’s business wing, he has stopped illegal migration, reversed the quasi-legal status of roughly one million migrants, and nudged perhaps one million out of the workforce. Trump’s shift has partially leveled the labor market, allowing Americans to gain more jobs and higher wages — and he has only been in office for five months.
The Democratic coalition also includes many competing groups, including black Americans who see migration as a pocketbook threat to their families and anti-border progressives — including LA. Mayor Karen Bass — who welcome the welfare-expanding flood of illegal migrants into low-wage, urban jobs:
The Democrats’ chaotic coalition also includes wealthy Baby Boomer retirees who prefer to hire lower-wage, subordinate-status migrants instead of hiring better-paid and socially equal Americans:
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