Trump Administration announces it will continue immigration raids at farms and hotels

"We're going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations, even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first," Tom Homan, the government's border czar, announced Thursday.

"First of all, there's a right way and wrong way to hire workers. There are legal programs that bring farm workers in," he argued, adding that he has been insisting for years that Congress "needs to address this." "But because Congress failed, it just doesn't mean we ignore it."

And he insisted, "It's illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien."

Homan thus responded to a reporter's question about the concern of the agricultural sector that sees its workforce shrinking because of these deportations, which, he argues, could end up affecting the food industry and the national economy. Last weekend, Trump appeared to promise, though without going into detail, changes to the farm and hotel raid policy.

The following day, the New York Times asserted that the government had lowered the order to partly pause detentions in those areas. Reports from other media, however, had called this claim into question. The border czar's words seem to settle the doubts.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reinforced this stance in a release, assuring just this Thursday that "there will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts." "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability."

"We are finding that these worksite enforcement often times find human traffickers, labour traffickers are otherwise exploiting these migrants for cheap labour," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin can be heard saying in a video accompanying the post. "We will continue worksite enforcement operations."