U.S. aquaculture operations will not be exempt from the federal government’s increased worksite immigration raids, despite earlier reports that the administration of President Donald Trump would pause raids on large swaths of the food and hospitality industries.
In May, senior Trump officials instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ramp up arrests, and the agency has responded by conducting more aggressive raids to find and detain undocumented people in the country.
The increased enforcement has concerned many in the agriculture sector, which relies heavily on both authorized and unauthorized immigrant labor, epitomized by a worksite raid of a meatpacking plant in Nebraska on 11 June that resulted in more than 70 arrests.
The worksite raids have also occurred in the seafood-processing sector. For example, ICE arrested two undocumented Guatemalan men on their way to work at a scallop-processing factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on 12 May.
Trump acknowledged the food sector’s frustration with the arrests in a 12 June social media post, suggesting that “changes are coming.”
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases, the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!” Trump said.
That same day, an ICE official directed law enforcement agents to "hold on all worksite enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture, restaurants, and operating hotels."
Immigrant labor groups and food sector representatives welcomed that change in policy, but according to the Washington Post, the policy has already been reversed. The newspaper reported on 17 June that the White House did not support the guidance, leading the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to discontinue it on 15 June.
“The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries [that] harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
Shortly after DHS reversed course on exempting aquaculture operations and other food and hospitality workers from raids, Trump directed ICE to increase enforcement operations, especially in cities with strong support for the Democrat Party.
“ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” Trump said on social media. “In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”
Recently, Lisa Maya Knauer, a co-founder of New Bedford-based worker’s rights organization Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (CCT), told SeafoodSource that New England’s seafood processing sector could not operate without its Central American labor force.
“[Seafood] is the biggest industry economically in New Bedford,” Knauer said. “What are scallops going to cost if they don't have any Central Americans to work? Is it going to be USD 30 [EUR 26] a pound, USD 35 [EUR 31] a pound, USD 40 [EUR 35] dollars a pound?”
The Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement has left many in the community fearful, too.
"We leave home, and we don't know if we're going to come back," a former worker told SeafoodSource on the condition of anonymity. “[The Trump administration] said that they were only going to look for criminals, but they're separating a lot of families.”
“We feel harassed. We are not criminals,” he added.
