Just over a year into his first term as President, Donald Trump witnessed a significant event in immigration enforcement. Immigration agents conducted a raid on a meat processing plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, leading to the arrest of 104 workers.
This incident marked the largest worksite raid in ten years. Shortly after, another raid took place at a large-scale nursery in Sandusky, Ohio, resulting in the arrest of 114 individuals. The following year, immigration agents targeted poultry plants in six towns in central Mississippi, apprehending a staggering 680 workers in a single day. These events highlight the intensified efforts to crack down on unauthorized immigration during Trump’s presidency.
In January, when Trump returns to office, he intends to reinstate the raids that were largely halted by President Biden’s administration.
Tom Homan, who served as Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is now slated to be the incoming “border czar,” emphasized the necessity of worksite operations. Speaking on “Fox and Friends” last week, Homan stated, “Worksite operations have to happen.”
Worksite raids grab attention and make for captivating news stories, but in reality, they do not result in a substantial number of deportations, as per experts in the field. John Sandweg, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama Administration, acknowledges that these operations are attention-grabbing, disruptive, and controversial, making their occurrence in the second Trump Administration anticipated. However, when considering the numbers, these raids do not significantly contribute to the overall deportation count.
During his campaign, Trump made several pledges to carry out the most extensive deportation campaign in U.S. history, aiming to eliminate millions of individuals from the country. In a social media post on Monday, Trump affirmed his readiness to declare a national emergency and utilize the military to bolster his large-scale deportation initiative.
Deporting individuals poses significant challenges and demands considerable time and resources. In fact, under Trump’s presidency, deportations reached their highest point in the 2019 budget year, with federal authorities successfully removing approximately 347,000 individuals.
To increase these figures even further, the Trump administration may opt to tackle the backlog of approximately 3 million cases in the immigration courts by persuading Congress to allocate more funds for immigration judges. Alternatively, they could hire additional agents to locate the hundreds of thousands of individuals who are still residing in the United States despite having received removal orders from a judge, according to Sandweg.
Experts say that worksite raids are costly and require a significant amount of resources. However, they are not considered to be very effective in increasing the desired number.
According to Eric Ruark, director of research for NumbersUSA, a prominent organization that supports the reduction of legal and illegal immigration, worksite enforcement plays a crucial role in addressing illegal immigration.
Ruark emphasizes that it not only helps deter individuals from attempting to work in the United States without authorization but also sends a clear message that such opportunities will not be available. He further highlights that worksite raids can effectively aid in identifying victims of sexual trafficking and forced labor, a point also emphasized by Homan.
According to Ruark, the reintroduction of workplace raids is expected to cause a clash within the Republican Party. Pro-business Republicans are likely to view these raids as detrimental to the economy. Ruark believes that there will be resistance and opposition from within the party, which may hinder the implementation of the campaign promises.
According to Michelle Lapointe, the legal director for the American Immigration Council, who opposes Trump’s immigration plans, the raids serve the purpose of sending a message. “The strategy behind these worksite raids is to instill fear in people, and they achieve exactly that,” she explains.
In April 2018, when the raid occurred in eastern Tennessee, workers took legal action and filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service. They alleged that the officers had unlawfully targeted them for arrest solely based on their appearance.
Eventually, the court approved a settlement of $1 million. Additionally, some of the workers were granted legal status as part of the agreement. Despite these developments, the meat processing plant in Bean Station continues its operations.
Lapointe states that her organization is getting ready to support workers in case worksite raids increase once again during the Trump administration. “They have made it clear that they intend to carry out these raids again, and we have no choice but to take them seriously,” she laments.