Trump upends ‘mass deportation’ order, tells ICE to go easy on ‘heartland’

President Trump has issued new orders to his deportation force, telling ICE he wants them to give the “heartland” a break while concentrating on cities as they move to carry out his demand for mass deportations.

He said there’s just not the same need to boot people in the heartland as there is in the cities.

The announcement, made on social media Sunday night and promoted by the White House, comes after days of Mr. Trump saying he would do something to rescue America’s farmers, who are feeling the pinch of labor as illegal immigrants — who make up a major chunk of farmworkers — fear going to work.

Mr. Trump said he is still committed to the “single largest mass deportation program in history,” but laid out new parameters for how he wants it to go down.

“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” he said on Truth Social. “And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!”

Late last week, The New York Times reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued a directive pausing worksite enforcement on agriculture, restaurants and hotels.

The announcements were met with praise by some immigration groups, but skepticism from others.

The American Business Immigration Coalition said the president had taken “decisive action to protect American farmers, restaurant owners and hotel operators.”

“President Trump emphasized the importance of removing violent criminals — not disrupting honest, hardworking communities,” the group said.

But the United Farm Workers doubted the pause even happened.

“As long as Border Patrol and ICE are allowed to sweep through farm worker communities making chaotic arrests the way they did today, they are still hunting down farm workers,” UFW said after the ICE worksite memo went out.

Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said the fact that Mr. Trump had to announce the pause is a “telling admission” that illegal immigrants are now central to the U.S. economy.

She said Republican members of Congress were feeling the heat from Mr. Trump’s deportation push and pressured the president to back off.

But she said that still leaves the migrants without full protections.

“Our country relies on immigrants — in key economic sectors and beyond — and the real reforms we need don’t look anything like the mass deportations in action,” she said.

Mr. Trump’s new directive highlights a tension in his immigration policy: His demand for “mass deportations” will be difficult to achieve if officers only focus on “criminals.”

That tension has been present dating back to the campaign, when Trump officials sent mixed signals about who would be in line for deportations. The end result was a general sense that ICE would largely go after criminals, but wouldn’t turn a blind eye to others who were encountered along the way — often referred to as “collateral arrests.”

ICE unshackled officers from onerous Biden rules about where and when arrests could be made.

The latest ICE data shows that, of the people ICE arrested and had in custody as of the start of this month, about 75% had either criminal convictions or pending charges. That’s the vast majority, but it’s still a slide from the Biden administration, when that figure topped 90%.

The result, immigration advocates said, is that illegal immigrants have become afraid to go to work, their children are afraid to go to school, and families are even avoiding religious services.

And ICE has barely moved the needle on arrests.

The agency averaged between 580 and 700 book-ins per day from mid-February to mid-May. The number topped 870 a day in late May.

That’s all well shy of the 3,000 a day needed to deport 1 million people a year.

Mr. Trump’s new directive comes as ICE officers are facing an intense backlash, with assaults spiking more than 400%.

And it’s not just migrants resisting arrest.

Federal prosecutors have brought charges in several stunning cases where they said residents took matters into their own hands to try to thwart ICE arrests, including using their own vehicles to try to box in the deportation officers.

Mr. Trump gave a vote of confidence to ICE officers Sunday.

“I want our Brave ICE Officers to know that REAL Americans are cheering you on every day,” he said.