In June 2025, the Trump administration dramatically escalated workplace immigration enforcement, deploying large-scale ICE raids across multiple states targeting undocumented workers in construction, agriculture, meatpacking, and hospitality. The raids marked the return of a tactic that had been suspended since the Obama administration.
On June 10, 2025, ICE raided the Glenn Valley Foods meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska, detaining 74-76 workers out of roughly 140 employees. Production at the facility dropped to approximately 20% of normal as remaining workers stayed home from fear and trauma. Raids occurred across a wide geographic range including Los Angeles, Tallahassee, New Orleans, San Diego, Martha's Vineyard, and the Berkshires. On June 12, a senior ICE official emailed regional offices to "hold all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels" — a temporary pause after the agricultural sector backlash.
The broader enforcement data revealed the true nature of the campaign. Arrests of people with no criminal record surged 2,450% in Trump's second term. In February 2025, 14.7% of ICE detainees had no criminal convictions or pending charges; by September that figure was 34.6%, and by January 2026 it reached 42.7%. Roughly 75,000 people with no criminal record were arrested by ICE from January 20 to mid-October 2025 — nearly one-third of all ICE arrests. The worksite raids were not about public safety; they were a tool of community terror designed to make immigrant communities — and anyone who employed or sheltered them — afraid.