For weeks now, President Trump has been trying to appease immigration hard-liners who were key to his political comeback and the farmers and others whose livelihoods rely heavily on undocumented workers.
On Tuesday, he toured an immigrant detention center in the Everglades nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” and warned that anyone trying to escape would have to outrun deadly predators. On the same trip, he said he wanted to allow some farm workers to stay in the country legally.
The moment crystallized the conflicting priorities Mr. Trump is navigating as it becomes clear that the scope of his deportation campaign is hurting American businesses.
“I’m on both sides of the thing,” Mr. Trump told Fox News over the weekend. “I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been. And that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work.”
Mr. Trump’s attempt to carve out exceptions to his crackdown has led to confusion among immigrants and business leaders, who have yet to see a concrete plan about what is in store. The president’s remarks have also created divisions inside the White House and led to conflicting messages from his administration.
Here’s a look at what Mr. Trump has said about his intentions:
What has the president said?
During his trip to the Everglades, Mr. Trump described in vague terms a system that would allow some undocumented workers on farms or in the hospitality business to stay in the United States.
“We’re going to have a system of signing them up so they don’t have to go,” he said. “They can be here legally, they can pay taxes and everything.”
He added that the farmers needed the workers to operate. “Without those people, you’re not going to be able to run your farm.”
Mr. Trump said farmers would be responsible for the immigrant laborers, who would not receive citizenship.
“The farmers can be responsible for some of the people,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re not going to have citizenship but they’ll be working, they’ll be paying taxes. We need to get our farmers the people they need.”
In the Fox News interview, Mr. Trump said his administration was “developing some kind of temporary pass where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”
How would the plan work?
The White House remained quiet about any details about the president’s plan. Officials have declined to answer questions seeking clarity about whether there is a plan at all.
The Department of Homeland Security also declined requests to clarify Mr. Trump’s comments on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump will need the help of Congress if he wants to provide a serious legal pathway for the workers to stay longer, according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
She said Mr. Trump could do what his predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr., did: “Use prosecutorial discretion to not target farmworkers.”
Mr. Trump could be focused on improving existing visa programs that allow employers to temporarily hire migrant workers. During a cabinet meeting in April, Mr. Trump said he wanted to strengthen such visa programs.
Mr. Trump first indicated a change was coming last month, when he posted on social media that immigrants in the farming and hospitality industries were “very good, long time workers” and that “changes are coming” to his deportation policies.
That came after Mr. Trump’s agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, called Mr. Trump to emphasize that farmers and agriculture groups were increasingly concerned about his immigration crackdown harming their work force.
That push by Ms. Rollins infuriated other White House colleagues who wanted Mr. Trump to maintain his pledge for mass deportations. But days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued guidance to pause work site enforcement at agriculture sites, meatpacking plans, restaurants and hotels, absent other criminality like human trafficking or drug smuggling.
Days later, Mr. Trump said on social media that ICE needed to intensify its efforts, particularly in Democratic cities. He did not mention workplace raids.
What’s happening on the ground?
Teresa Romero, the president of the United Farm Workers Union, which represents 10,000 field workers in California, Oregon, Washington and New York, said in an interview that work site enforcement had continued on farms throughout the United States, despite the recent ICE guidance.
“Unfortunately when there is no policy, it’s difficult to know what he is proposing,” Ms. Romero said of Mr. Trump’s recent comments.
Other rural areas, however, have reported effectively no ICE raids in recent weeks. But even in agricultural regions where there has been little immigration enforcement, immigrants are still targeted by cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
“Essentially what’s happened is that sheriff deputies and police officers are pulling undocumented folks over for small infractions then asking for ID,” said Eddie Delgado, who works in Vidalia, Ga., an onion-growing area, for Migrant Equity Southeast, a nonprofit. “When they don’t provide driver’s licenses, they get arrested and then ICE gets them if they find out they’re undocumented.”
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said his agency was focused on cases where employers were taking advantage of workers.
Mr. Lyons said ICE was particularly interested in tracking companies that exploited workers through “human trafficking, forced labor, child trafficking, things like that.”
Mr. Lyons said ICE leaders had questions about reports of limiting work site operations at certain industries, like the agricultural industry, and that leadership clarified the agency’s stance on a recent call.
“All work site is still on the table,” he said the leaders were told.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Miriam Jordan reports from a grass roots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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