By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-09-30 22:01:55 | Updated at 2026-10-01 04:40:32
9 hours ago
Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), citing “a very difficult balancing act from the standpoint of our ranchers” regarding recent ICE arrests in rural areas, suggested ICE should go about their enforcement actions in those areas differently.
Justice told Politico that he hopes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will alter its policy of ranging out into rural areas to arrest illegal migrants.
“Before you know it, you get people that get carried away in their job and whatever it may be, and all of a sudden, then you’re dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years, and I don’t know that we need to be doing that stuff,” the senator said.
He went on to suggest that ICE is “doing something wrong” with its tactics of rural arrests.
“To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you’re doing something wrong,” the senator said. “And in this situation, with all that’s going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say, ‘Maybe we’re doing something wrong here or there,’ and then adjust to that.”
Justice is speaking out in hopes of protecting ranchers and farmers who employ illegal migrants to fill low-wage jobs.
“It is a very difficult balancing act from the standpoint of our ranchers,” Justice said. “All of a sudden, they’re understaffed.”
Several agricultural organizations have begun to push back against the president’s voter-mandated immigration policies since ICE has changed tactics and begun ranging out into more rural areas.
In Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, the cattle industry has begun criticizing ICE raids, as have some local Republicans.
“These ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving,” the three organizations said in a joint statement.
Dairy industry representatives in Idaho have also voiced their concerns over losing cheap labor, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The pressure from Republicans may have been at the heart of the recent news that the Department of Homeland Security has handed down a directive to begin curtailing the arrests of migrants who don’t have a criminal record and to focus more on illegals who have broken laws other than immigration laws.
Still, after those reports began filtering through the media, the Department of Homeland Security struck back at the reports and insisted that stories of any stand-down order are “false” and added that “no one is off the table” for being detained if they are in the country illegally.
Meanwhile, wages in the construction industry and other sectors seeing a dearth of migrant workers are on the upswing.
“The construction industry is experiencing its most dramatic compensation transformation in decades,” a December 2025 report by The Birmingham Group said:
The current labor shortage is driving unprecedented wage increases across commercial projects. Construction firms report difficulty filling critical positions, with some markets experiencing job opening-to-candidate ratios exceeding 3:1. This imbalance has created a seller’s market for skilled workers, enabling significant salary negotiations and competitive pay packages.
Vice President JD Vance also noted that higher wages are better than higher immigration.
“What we believe in this White House is what we need more and more of is high wages for American workers and investing in our own people,” Vance said back in May. “What you see all over the West, and it’s kind of crazy, is this idea that the way to generate prosperity is to bring in millions and millions of unvetted people and drop them into your neighborhoods, and we simply reject that idea.”
He added, “One of the problems that we have in all of Western societies is that we have a lot of people who have decided — Wall Street bankers, corporate lobbyists, and government officials — that what the United States and what the West need is more and more cheap labor.”
Ultimately, after reports on his initial comments, Sen. Justice pulled back on his seeming support for cheap migrant labor.
In a statement on Wednesday, the senator said he still supports Trump’s immigration policies.
“Let me be crystal clear: I support President Trump’s immigration strategy, full stop. It’s not surprising that some are twisting my words to score political points, but there should be no confusion about where I stand,” he said before going on to praise ICE for “doing an incredible job protecting our communities.”
He continued, “President Trump has made securing our border and restoring law and order a top priority, and I support that effort. As a senator, I will continue working with the administration and our law enforcement officers to make West Virginia and this country safer.”
“West Virginians expect us to enforce the law, protect our communities, and keep dangerous criminals off our streets. That is exactly what I support,” Justice concluded.
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