President Donald Trump appears to be shifting his stance on the deportation of illegal immigrants. 

This is according to a new report from the New York Times, titled, Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Rids on Farms, Hotels, and Eateries. 

This is a major reversal from Trump, who campaigned for the better part of a decade on a promise to deport illegal immigrants residing in America. If this reporting is true, then the big question is why Trump has changed his mind.

( @realDonaldTrump - Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump - Jun 12, 2025, 9:43 AM ET )

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… pic.twitter.com/DOMyVQq6GV

— Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) June 12, 2025

The details

According to the Times reports, Trump has even gone so far as to tell Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to call off certain raids.

Per the outlet:

The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels, and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance.

The outlet goes on to write that "The guidance was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations."

The email is quoted a stating, "Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels."

It appears that the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed that the email is authentic. But, what about Trump?

Trump confirms the report?

President Trump has put out a message, on social media, which would seem to suggest that the Times' report is not wrong.

He wrote:

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. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!

At the time of this writing, Trump has not provided an update on the situation.

Here, though, we get some insight into what Trump is thinking, namely, that some of these industries would be seriously hurt by the loss of these workers, were they to be deported.

It remains to be seen how Trump's base will respond to this shift.