ICE raid on Meta shows tension between Trump's immigration and AI agendas

Driving the news: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday targeted construction workers on their way to a Meta data center in Louisiana, per multiple reports.

• Two drivers from Guatemala and Honduras were arrested because of their immigration status, according to the reports.
• ICE agents reportedly did not enter the $27 billion Meta facility.
• Meta declined to comment.
• "ICE did NOT target a meta data center in Louisiana. Officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest" the two workers, an ICE spokesperson said in an email.

Flashback: It's not the first time immigration officials have targeted a key tech player.

• In September, ICE raided a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, arresting more than 300 South Korean workers.

"I was very angry about it," Trump said of the Hyundai raid in a Jan. 9 interview with the New York Times.

• "Batteries are very complex, and they're very dangerous to make, and they make them, and they brought in three or four hundred people who specialize in batteries ... and they threw them out."

• Trump in the interview noted immigrant labor is necessary and "you can't take a person off the street" to make the highly complex batteries.

The big picture: It's not just tech.

• Trump in the NYT interview said he has also directed ICE to ease off deportations in the agriculture and hospitality sectors.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comment from ICE.