President Donald Trump conceded on Thursday that his “very aggressive” immigration policies are causing labour shortages in farming and hotels.
Mr Trump said he would soon issue a “common sense” order that would protect those two industries.
“Our farmers are being hurt badly, they have very good workers,” he said. “They’ve worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they turn out to be, you know, great, and we have to do something about that.”
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that nationwide raids on people in the country without documentation is also hurting hotel and service business too.
“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,” he wrote. “Changes are coming.”
The comments were a stunning reversal for a president who ran on a campaign promise to conduct the largest deportation operation in the country’s history.
They also come amid worsening national tension, after he sent thousands of armed troops to Los Angeles to quell protests that erupted at the weekend over his administration’s anti-immigration policies.
The protests ignited after immigration agents went to the car park of a hardware shop where day labourers are known to gather.
On the campaign trail, Mr Trump said he would focus on criminals and gang members, and that he would seal the southern border shut.
Since he took office this year, immigration agents have conducted sweeping operations on restaurants, building sites and businesses, detaining hundreds of people, many without criminal records, and in some cases those in the country legally.
The effort has largely affected Latin American migrants, many of whom are in the country illegally, and yet are indispensable – albeit underpaid – workers in the farming, building and service industries across much of the country.
The arrests and deportations, often without due process, have separated families and deeply hurt communities.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the nation has “a very broken labour system” and that it was a matter of national security for it to be fixed.
“We have to make sure our workforce is legal and is here legally,” Ms Rollins told CNBC on Thursday. “But the President understands that we can’t feed our nation or the world without that labour force, and he’s listening to the farmers, which I really appreciate.”
On Thursday, Democratic Senator Alex Padilla from California was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in the city to address the continuing protests and promote federal law enforcement’s immigration crackdown efforts.
Mr Padilla said he had concerns with that effort.
“I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” he said, as men in plain clothes rushed towards him and pushed him out of the room. He said he was briefly handcuffed and detained but was later released.