CHICAGO, June 16, 2025 — In a major break for the food-away-from-home business, the Trump Administration has directed immigration authorities to ease their roundup of undocumented workers employed by food growers, meat and seafood processors, restaurants, and hotels.
The only public notice about the policy change was a post by President Trump on the Truth Social social-media network. An internal directive was sent around the same time to immigration authorities in the field, directing them to halt the detention of food-processing and hotel workers unless the individuals were wanted for serious crimes, according to news reports.
Pressure from the restaurant business prompted the White House to expand the qualified exemption to restaurant workers, several of those media reports noted.
According to The New York Times, Trump was persuaded to exempt workers involved in certain stations of the food chain by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who warned that domestic food production would otherwise be severely disrupted. She recounted reports from farmers that their employees were not showing for work because of fears they’d be apprehended and deported.
Estimates hold that as many as 40% of the workers employed in food production may be undocumented.
Rollins apparently convinced Trump to carve out exemptions for industries that would be hurt by the drop in their workforces. “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,” the president subsequently posted on Truth Social. “This is not good. We must protect our Farmers.”
The shift in policy came as enforcement agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were conducting highly publicized roundups of undocumented workers within major California agricultural and urban centers. News reports indicated that some restaurants were closing rather than expose their workers to the crackdown and the sometimes-violent public protests that followed.
The American Civil Liberties Union estimated that about 5 million people participated in the 2,100 No Kings demonstrations that were held across the country to protest Trump’s various policy, including his efforts to round up and deport immigrants who lack the proper documentation to work legally in the U.S.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.
Cover image courtesy: Closed Loop Project