President Donald Trump says he’s open to giving undocumented immigrants working in agriculture and other essential industries a temporary pass from deportation, as long as they pay taxes and have no criminal records. During a Fox News interview, Trump said that removing long-time workers from farms could hurt American farmers and agricultural operations.
“I’m the strongest immigration guy there’s ever been. But I’m also the strongest farmer guy there’s ever been,” Trump told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo. “You know when you go into a farm and you see somebody working with them for nine years doing this kind of work, which is hard work to do and a lot of people aren’t going to do it, and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away.”
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Farmers report labor shortages amid ICE raids
According to a report from Reuters, some rural farmers outside Los Angeles say they’ve seen their workforce shrink due to fears over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. One farmer reported that 70% of workers are no longer showing up, resulting in large portions of crops going unpicked.
Economists told Reuters they expect economic fallout if current labor disruptions continue without policy adjustments. Trump indicated his administration is already working on a fix.
“We’re working on it right now,” he said. “We’re going to work it so that, some kind of a temporary pass, where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control, as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”
Trump says policy idea is not a response to criticism
Bartiromo asked whether this proposed leniency was a direct response to criticism from Democrats over the aggressive execution of ICE raids under Trump’s administration.
Trump dismissed that notion, saying backlash from opponents played no role in his openness to the new proposal.
This isn’t the first time Trump has floated the idea. In a June 12 Truth Social post, Trump said, “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
In June, the Department of Homeland Security instructed staff to temporarily pause immigration enforcement at farms, restaurants and hotels. However, the pause was short-lived. Days later, federal officials warned there are “no safe spaces” when it comes to immigration enforcement.
