Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has made it clear that under President Donald Trump's reinvigorated immigration enforcement strategy, the agency isn’t just targeting illegal immigrants, it’s also going after the employers who knowingly exploit vulnerable migrant labor. Lyons emphasized that holding these businesses accountable is key to protecting American workers, upholding the rule of law, and ending the magnet that draws illegal immigration in the first place.
During an interview on NewsNation’s Cuomo, Lyons revealed that the agency has been actively targeting locations suspected of human trafficking, child exploitation, and other serious crimes. He emphasized that ICE is not solely targeting illegal immigrant workers, but also cracking down on U.S. businesses that illegally exploit them for profit.
“We’re focusing on American businesses that are illegally profiting off the labor of the men and women they exploit,” he said. “We’re not just going after individuals — we’re going after the businesses too.”
Lyons explained that ICE operations, including recent ones that sparked protests, were based on valid federal criminal warrants related to serious crimes like human trafficking and child exploitation. He emphasized that ICE is focused on enforcing the law with judicial oversight, not conducting random raids.
"We hear all the time, from the left and the right, hey, we’ll support you if you have a criminal warrant, search warrant signed by a judge. And when you see a lot of the worksite that we’ve done, like the marijuana grow farm or the events on June 6 that led to the riots and the protesting of us in L.A., they were actual federal criminal warrants that ICE was going to a location that either had possible human trafficking, child exploitation, or some type of criminal event. That’s what ICE is focused on right now," he continued.
Lyons has previously stated that ICE will detain individuals who are in the U.S. illegally, even if they don’t have a separate criminal record, a practice he refers to as “collateral arrests.” He also explained that this approach helps ICE stay ahead of potential crime and works as a preventive measure to reduce violence.