Mixed messaging and the risk of overreach is threatening to undercut President Trump on what has so far been arguably his strongest political issue: immigration.

Trump has delighted his supporters in the first five months of his second term, aggressively following through on his pledge to ramp up deportations, crack down on border crossings and empower federal agents working in immigration enforcement.

“I think there’s more of a sense of urgency,” Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Hill.

“Ironically, they’ve benefited from four years of the Biden administration,” Mehlman said. “The American public got a taste of what open borders is like and didn't like it very much. This time, [Trump] came in with public sentiment being 'hey, this is crazy and we need to do something about it.'”

But Trump has in recent weeks hit some hiccups in messaging.

The president and the administration have offered conflicting messages about whether farmers and those in the hospitality industry will receive some kind of special treatment or exemption from broader deportation efforts.

Trump earlier in the month acknowledged concerns among the agriculture and hospitality industries that aggressive immigration enforcement was taking away workers key to those businesses, leading to a pause in enforcement at farms, hotels and other locations.

But within days, it appeared the administration seemed to reverse course. Border czar Tom Homan told reporters the administration would “continue to do worksite enforcement operations, even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis.”

Trump last Friday further muddied the picture when he again suggested he was looking into a way to help farmers.

“We’re looking at doing something where, in the case of good reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility because we can’t put the farms out of business,” Trump said in New Jersey.

Sources told The Hill the........

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