Trump orders ICE to largely pause raids and detentions of migrants at hotels, restaurants and farms

The New York Times revealed Friday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump formally ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to largely pause detentions and raids against illegal immigrants at hotels, restaurants and farms. The report detailed that the Republican leader's order was announced via an internal email. Three Trump administration officials who had full knowledge of the directive anonymously spoke with The New York Times.

According to the report, Trump's directive was sent Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official named Tatum King to regional leaders of the agency's department. "Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels," the email detailed.

"Non-criminal collateral"

The email also explained that while various investigations related to "human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK," officials from ICE were not supposed to arrest those who qualified as "non-criminal collateral," which is a reference that different law enforcement agencies within the United States often use to refer to people who, despite being undocumented, police have no evidence or indication have committed any other crime.

The New York Times report comes a day after Trump publicly assured during an event at the White House that he would soon issue an order to address collateral damage caused by his immigration policies on the country's hotels and farms. "Our farmers are being hurt badly and we're going to have to do something about that. ... We're going to have an order on that pretty soon, I think," the conservative leader commented.