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Farms, hotels and restaurants that rely on migrant workers are urging the Trump administration to save important industries from immigrant attacks.
Confusion is swirling around whether President Trump will arrest and exempt some businesses from efforts to deport illegally living in the United States.
Last week, Trump posted a true socially-based post about focusing immigrant crackdowns on criminals rather than farmers. These workers, along with those employed in hotels and leisure businesses, raised concerns that his administration’s “active immigration policies” were taking away jobs that were “nearly impossible to exchange.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in the Times Saturday that immigration enforcement focuses primarily on people accused of violent crimes.
However, further guidance from DHS leadership this week appears to reverse that directive, causing confusion even among internal ranks about what the policy is.
DHS Public Relations Secretary Tricia McLaughlin is adjacent to Madison Xiahan, the assistant director of U.S. Immigration Customs, and to the left, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency Todd Lyons will speak at a press conference at ICE headquarters in Washington on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
(Jose Luis Magana/Applications)
“Criminal foreigners in this country should know that they have no safe shelter. There is no safe port. Whether it’s a church, a court, or a workplace, we’ll come for you. We’ll arrest you, and you’ll be deported.
Contradictory messages show that the Trump administration is trying to get caught in the needle between mitigating the agriculture and hospitality industries and achieving the White House’s aggressive deportation goals.
The fear has spread throughout the immigrant community since early June, when federal agents stormed several businesses, including Los Angeles Home Depot and atmospheric apparel, sparking days of protest against immigrant crackdowns.
California’s economy, the fourth largest in the world, is expected to sign later this year as immigrant raids and tariffs rattle hospitality, agriculture, construction and other major industries.
The California Chamber of Commerce said the group doesn’t know how the attack will affect the state’s economy given the liquidity of current events. The Chamber of Commerce has not had a conversation with the Trump administration, but advocates for immigration reform in Washington.
“The current situation is bad for our community and bad for businesses,” Calchumber president and CEO Jennifer Barrera said in a statement last week. “And there is a wide consensus that those who have lived and worked here for years without engaging in criminal activity should be given a path to continue doing so legally without fear.”
California has around 2.28 million undocumented immigrants, making up 8% of the state’s workers. California has around 10.6 million immigrants.
Undocumented workers generated nearly 5% of California’s gross domestic product (the monetary value of final goods and services), and contributed more than $23 billion per year in local, state and federal taxes, the report said.
Here’s how major industries are responding to Trump’s immigrant raids:
Farm workers fearing the attack don’t want to risk promoting labor shortages, according to a representative from the California Farm Bureau.
(For Al-Cebu/Date)
farm
Farmers are working on a mixed signal about whether Trump will give them a reprieve during the summer harvest season. Several groups defending the industry have emphasized that if there are not enough farmers to harvest the crop, family food prices could rise.
“The current approach to federal immigration enforcement is to have a devastating impact on the rural California community and the farmers, ranchers, workers and families who live and work there,” Brian Little, senior director of policy advocacy for the California Farm Bureau, said in a statement.
Some farmers fearing the attack, partly due to false alarms spreading on social media, don’t want to risk going to work or promote labor shortages, Little said in an interview.
If immigration enforcement activities continue during peak summer harvest season from July to September, he said it is difficult to put food on grocery store shelves.
Chuck Connor, president and chief executive of the National Council of Farmers Cooperatives, said in a statement Tuesday that he was “deeply concerned” that immigration enforcement would be hit by farms and other agricultural businesses.
“This is directly contradictory to President Trump’s commitment to American farmers and ranchers.
More than a quarter of California’s agricultural industry is undocumented. The Bay Area Council Economic Research Institute and the UC Merced report state that without this workforce, GDP from the industry will sign a 14% contract.
Community members began Pasadena City Hall and joined four hotels, Dena Hotel Pasadena, Hilton Pasadena, AC Hotel Pasadena, Westin Hotel Pasadena, and an area that housed Ice Ophical on Thursday, June 12th, 2025.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
Hotel
The hospitality industry has told administrative authorities that it faces severe labor shortages under current policies of repression of offensive immigration. They are lobbying for temporary visas for hotel workers.
American Hotel & Lodging Assn. Rosanna Maietta, president and CEO of the company, said in a statement that the association “has held numerous meetings with the administrative authorities to communicate the challenges of serious workforce shortages and to highlight the importance of a strong hospitality and tourism sector.”
The group will continue these discussions, along with supporting employers and their workers.
Approximately 10% of all workers in the leisure and hospitality industry nationwide are fraudulent immigrants, according to organizations such as the Economists and the Center for Immigration Research, a New York think tank.
Michael Clemens, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says these workers play a key role. They are “a key element” and without it, he said, there will be no other work in the industry.
“There is clear evidence that massive deportation is generally destructive for the economy and the US labor market. Specifically, hospitality will be tough,” Clemens said. “Their labor is an important factor in production, and it is production that produces other jobs in the sector. That’s what everyone wants to understand.”
Several downtown restaurants remained on board this week due to uncertainty from the ice immigrant attacks in Los Angeles. Many in the industry call immigrants the “lifeline” of the restaurant industry.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
restaurant
Groups representing the restaurant industry highlight the important role immigrants play in the workforce.
“There is a lot of uncertainty, whether or not there is a federal immigration policy or legal status that instills fear in the immigrant community, and in some cases it has a calm impact on restaurant team members and guest traffic,” Giotto Condie, president and CEO of California Restaurant Assn, said in a statement.
Consey calls immigrants the “lifeline” of the restaurant industry, saying in a statement last week that “immigration is driving our workforce and has a major positive impact on our economy.”
Trump’s campaign promises to expand massive deportation.
In February, restaurants such as Teddy’s Red Tacos in Southern California said sales fell after Trump announced immigration lawsuits to fulfill his campaign pledge to expand mass deportation. Last month, immigration and customs enforcement agents flocked to two Italian restaurants in San Diego.
According to the Center for Immigration Research, an estimated 8.3 million workers in the United States with no legal status have roughly 1 million workers working in the restaurant industry.
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