Washington: US President Donald Trump has instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to halt raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, by significantly shifting the direction on the mass deportation campaign, according to a media report.
According to The New York Times report, the move was made as the mass deportation campaign hurt industries and constituencies that President Trump doesn’t want to lose, which is the central focus of his Presidency.
The report suggested that Tatum King, a senior ICE official, had sent an email Thursday to regional leaders of the ICE department issuing the directive.
“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants, and operating hotels,” read the message.
However, the email mentioned continuing investigations which involve “human trafficking, money laundering, and drug smuggling into these industries.”
Additionally, it directed the agents not to take anyone into the custody of “noncriminal collaterals,” referring to people who are undocumented but have no criminal records.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed the recent developments.
“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,” Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The directive came after agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement agencies raided several locations in southern California, which sparked mass protests.
Earlier this week, a protest against immigration raids in Santa Ana, 50 km east of downtown Los Angeles, resulted in several injuries and arrests after demonstrators clashed with federal authorities and local police.
The protest was triggered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids during the day across Santa Ana, the capital of Orange County, with a population of over 300,000.
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento told the Orange County Register newspaper that the immigration officials appeared to have targeted day labourers waiting for work.
At least 200 protesters, waving flags and carrying signs, gathered outside a federal building in downtown Santa Ana, which houses ICE offices and other federal department offices, to protest the raids that occurred.
Later, the situation escalated and took a chaotic turn after law enforcement reportedly shot at the crowd.
California sued the Trump administration after the President ordered the deployment of 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles without the state’s permission in response to the protests.
Nearly 400 people in immigration protests have been arrested or detained by the Los Angeles Police Department since Saturday, media reports said.
The arrested and detained include 330 undocumented migrants and 157 people arrested for assault and obstruction, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting the BBC News.
On the first night of curfew starting Tuesday night in the US second largest city, there were 203 arrests for failure to disperse and 17 arrests for curfew violation, said the Los Angeles Police Department in a press release.
