By Jacob Burg. Media: Theepochtimes
President Donald Trump said on June 29 that his administration was working on a solution where farmers and hospitality business owners could potentially retain some illegal immigrant workers if they’re not involved in crime and pay taxes.
Speaking with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump said he’s trying to reconcile being both the “strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been” and also the “strongest farmers [and hotels] guy.”
“I cherish our farmers,” Trump said, adding that some of the farmworkers being deported have been working in these positions for 15 to 20 years and “are good” but possibly entered the country “incorrectly.”
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to do something for farmers, where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge,” he said.
“The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murderer. But you know, when you go into a farm and he’s had somebody working with him 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, it’s a problem.”
Trump said he understands the farmers’ position as well as those wanting a crackdown on illegal immigration.
“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 said, adding that any criminals will still be deported.
Bartiromo asked Trump if his decision to grant a “temporary pass” to farmers and hospitality business owners over some of their illegal immigrant workers was a response to critics who said the execution of his mass deportations “was a little clumsy.”
“People were afraid to go to work,” she said. “They were afraid to run into ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They said, ‘You know, look, if you give a quota to somebody and say, go get me 600 people who are here in the country illegally, we’ll come back with 600 people, even if it’s not the right 600.’”
Trump replied that the execution of his mass deportations was “unbelievable,” and suggested that President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, which incentivized so many people to travel to the U.S.–Mexico Border to enter the United States, were clumsy.
This is not the first time Trump has indicated he might grant a reprieve to farmers and hoteliers.
On June 12, Trump said he would soon sign an executive order to address illegal farm and hotel workers, citing farmers, hoteliers, and leisure business operators who had told him that his administration’s “very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, longtime workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”
“Changes are coming!” Trump said in his post on social media.
During an April Cabinet meeting, Trump said that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had said there should be a pathway for “certain people” who are recommended by farmers to “stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and go through a legal process.”
Earlier this month, border czar Tom Homan told reporters that immigration authorities would continue targeting farms, hotels, and restaurants, but with an emphasis on those with ties to criminal organizations.
Homan suggested he was sympathetic to those industries and the impacts they’ve faced from immigration enforcement, but said it’s ICE’s job to enforce immigration law.
“There’s a right way and wrong way to hire workers,” Homan said. “There are legal programs that bring farm workers in. … I’ve been saying for years that Congress needs to address this, but because Congress failed, it just doesn’t mean we ignore it. It’s illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien.”
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