Patricia Lopez, Columnist

ICE Raids or Work Permits? The White House Wants It Both Ways

Offering carve-outs to sectors like hospitality and farming while ramping up deportations is ultimately self-defeating.

September 22, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC

Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.

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President Donald Trump’s promise to ratchet immigration levels back is colliding headlong with his other goal: a thriving economy that brings manufacturing and foreign investment back to the US. He can’t have it both ways, but he doesn’t seem to understand that. Perhaps that’s why his administration keeps dangling — and then retracting — the prospect of special exceptions for undocumented immigrants who work in certain sectors.

For months, Trump has whipsawed between merciless deportations that have chilled legal and illegal immigration and vague promises about carve-outs for affected industries. A clear plan has never materialized. His mixed signals are creating an intolerable level of confusion for businesses and prospective workers alike, with unhappy results for the US economy.