Federal immigration authorities have continued to target illegal immigrant farmworkers under the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation despite President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that he would “soon” put in place protections for agricultural workers, according to the national union that represents workers.
Not long after Trump told reporters at the White House that he planned to take action to ensure farmworkers were not the focus of arrest efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and federal police, immigrant rights advocates in one targeted region suggested that nothing had changed in 24 hours, likely because the White House has not yet issued a directive.
The United Farm Workers, a labor union for farmworkers in the United States, posted pictures and reports from eyewitnesses in Central California’s farming region that Customs and Border Protection agents were going after workers on Friday.
“NOW: Border Patrol is continuing raids on farm workers in Ventura County, especially Moorpark and Oxnard,” UFW wrote in a post to X Friday. “Agents are circling like sharks. Farm workers in areas with heightened activity should check in on each other and take steps to keep safe. Report what you see to us.”
NOW: Border Patrol is continuing raids on farm workers in Ventura County, especially Moorpark and Oxnard.
Agents are circling like sharks. Farm workers in areas with heightened activity should check in on each other and take steps to keep safe. Report what you see to us. pic.twitter.com/j9N4Da3aoF
— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) June 13, 2025
Neither CBP nor ICE responded to requests for comment regarding whether they were told not to continue targeting farmworkers.
Earlier this week, UFW found federal police targeting illegal immigrant workers in various California communities. One such video that the UFW shared on X showed two federal police officers who appear to be dressed in green CBP uniforms chasing an immigrant through a field.
Who is the real threat?
The farm worker, or the people hunting us? pic.twitter.com/z5ppn54fOx— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) June 11, 2025
“We are aware of multiple federal immigration ‘enforcement’ actions involving farm workers in multiple regions of California, including those in Ventura, Kern, and Tulare counties,” UFW said in a press release Tuesday. “Any federal actions designed to terrorize and separate farm worker communities is an attack on Californians and a dangerous waste of resources. Indiscriminate raids and chaotic sweeps put public safety at risk.”
Very quickly, the White House received pushback about targeting immigrant workers.
The brunt of the blowback came from elected officials in the Golden State. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) jointly decried ICE targeting workers in the field.
“We are deeply alarmed by the latest actions from the Trump Administration targeting workers at agricultural fields, packinghouses, and other facilities from the Central Coast to the Central Valley,” the senators said in a statement this week. “California is the nation’s largest agricultural state, and without the people who work through harsh conditions — extreme heat, cold weather, or pouring rain — feeding the nation would be impossible, and putting food on the table would be much more expensive for American families.”
Foreign workers make up 86% of agricultural workers in the U.S., and nearly half of all agricultural workers, or 283,000, are undocumented, according to the Center for Migration Studies in New York.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was quick to blast reports that ICE was targeting farmworkers without legal status to be in the United States.
“Turns out, chasing hard working people through ranches and farms and snatching women and children off the streets is not good policy,” Newsom wrote in a post to X Thursday shortly after Trump announced the White House was working to put protections in place for that particular population.
Amid the criticism, the White House said it would walk back the expansion and put in place protections for those specific workers.
“We’re going to have an order on that pretty soon, I think,” Trump said Thursday at the White House. “We can’t do that to our farmers, and leisure too. Hotels. We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “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.
“We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!” Trump wrote in the post.
But the UFW said the continuation of raids targeting immigrants on Friday suggested that Trump was not really running the show, or he was insincere.
“Clearly we have to ask: who is actually calling the shots? Trump says he doesn’t want federal agencies to go after farm workers, but that’s exactly what is happening,” UFW wrote in a post to X Thursday evening. “If he’s really in charge, he could prove it by ordering ICE and Border Patrol to STOP THE RAIDS.”
Several officials familiar with the administration’s immigration plans reported that they had not seen any progress on the promised policy changes, according to the Washington Post.
The pushback against going after farmworkers puts the White House in a bind. Just weeks ago, White House Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller stated that ICE should be arresting 3,000 illegal immigrants daily, far beyond the roughly 1,500 arrests the agency has made per day in recent weeks.
In some cities, including New York City, plainclothes ICE officers elected to show up in immigration courthouses and arrest immigrants as they showed up for court proceedings because it presented an easy way to nab people at specific times and places.
This week, ICE began making arrests at job sites on farms in California.
Asked if federal law enforcement would continue to go after illegal immigrants working on farms, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said it is following the White House’s orders.
“We will follow the President’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Washington Examiner on Friday afternoon that Trump would address both matters, but did not specify when or how.
“President Trump has always stood up for our farmers, who were a major part of his November victory, by working to negotiate fairer trade deals and cut red tape,” Kelly said in a statement. “He will continue to strengthen our agricultural industry and boost exports while keeping his promise to enforce our immigration laws and remove the millions of unvetted illegals who flooded into the United States under [former President] Joe Biden.”
Others, including Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), are looking at permanent solutions to protect illegal immigrants who work on American farms.
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“President Trump himself has acknowledged what so many of us already know: long-time workers, many of whom have built their lives in this country, are being taken away. Our construction sites, our hotels, and our farms are feeling the impact,” said Salazar in a statement. “It’s time for Congress to act and bring a solution.”
Salazar has promised to co-introduce a “revolutionary” bill to fix the immigration system with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) by the end of June.