Food industry watches Trump ICE raid flip flops
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Uncertainty has returned to the food industry days after President Trump raised the hopes of its leaders that he would pause immigration raids on food and hospitality businesses.
Why it matters: Illinois employs about 600,000 food and hospitality workers and thousands more in agriculture and meatpacking, all of which rely heavily on unauthorized labor.
Catch up quick: On Thursday, President Trump wrote on social media, "our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away."
- The same day, a senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official sent nationwide orders to "hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meatpacking plants), restaurants, and operating hotels."
What they're saying: "We worked along with the American Business Immigration Coalition's Rebecca Shi and their whole board and we advocated very hard for this," Illinois Restaurant Association president Sam Toia tells Axios.
- "We're very happy to see that the Trump administration is going to back off of restaurants because restaurants do not exist without the immigrant community here in the United States."
- The move comes after scattered reports of workplace raids in the Chicago area.
The other side: Axios asked Illinois' Republican U.S. Reps Mary Miller, Mike Bost and Darin LaHood to comment on the food industry exemptions but did not get responses.
Between the lines: The move came in response to complaints from the farm and hospitality industries that were funneled to Trump through Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Axios sources say.
- Rollins defended the move on X Sunday, saying, "Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans."
- That post received hundreds of critical comments from MAGA supporters accusing Rollins and Trump of breaking their promise of mass deportation.
The intrigue: The exemptions were announced as Chicago hosted some of the biggest names in food at James Beard Award ceremonies where presenters and awardees stressed the importance of immigrants to the industry.
Zoom out: Late Sunday, Trump announced expanded "efforts to detain and deport" undocumented immigrants in Democratic-run cities.
- The same day, ICE executed another local enforcement action in which people enrolled in an immigration monitoring program were invited to a downtown office for a check-in and detained.
The latest: Late Monday night the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration had once again reversed its policy on food industry raids and has instructed field offices to resume them.