In its pursuit of illegal migrants, the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security reportedly has focused on arresting workers more than on punishing employers.
Despite dozens of raids since year's start either mentioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on its website or publicized by media outlets, The Washington Post reported it identified only one employer charged after the raids.
The newspaper said it reviewed court filings and searched for records involving individuals named in corporate records of businesses DHS raided.
"The difference about these raids of the last six weeks is that this is not principally an action against employers," Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, told the Post.
"This is principally an action in pursuit of mass deportations. When they could not produce the number of arrests that they had been hoping for, they suddenly said, 'Let's raid employers.' It was not, 'Let's penalize employers.'"
ICE arrests have more than doubled across 38 states since President Donald Trump took office, with the agency averaging 666 administrative detentions per day through June 10, up from fewer than 300 daily arrests in 2024, The New York Times reported Friday.
This Freedom of Information Act-sourced report shows ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division immediately ramped up activity to fulfill the administration's goal of deporting millions of unauthorized immigrants, the Times reported.
The Post reported that, to meet desired numbers, ICE has focused on arresting migrants at small businesses because it's easier than penalizing employers, against whom the government must show they knew of the worker's illegal status.
Some small-business owners said the raids have convinced them the administration's primary goal is arresting 3,000 migrants a day, instead of targeting criminals.
ICE arrested 33 workers at construction sites near Ocala, Florida, and 11 at Outlook Dairy Farms near Lovington, New Mexico, the Post said.
Two business owners told the newspaper that armed DHS agents, who legally can go into any areas considered publicly accessible, had entered areas restricted from the public while conducting raids.
"It's already hard enough to run a small business. We've barely been open in recent months. This hurt a lot," said a shop owner whose auto repair shop outside Philadelphia was raided in February when three workers were arrested.
The owner of a car wash in Torrance, California, said his requests to see warrants during a June raid were denied.
"They weren't answering any of my questions," Emmanuel Karim Nicola-Cruz said, the Post reported. "I feel like my rights were 100 percent violated. I feel absolutely, absolutely betrayed. We have American flags all over the property. We're an American business."
The Trump administration has asked courts for a Blackie's warrant, which allows ICE agents to enter and search businesses without specifically naming the aliens being sought.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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