President Trump on Tuesday said he would not provide an “amnesty” program that would offer help to farms and migrant farm workers, but he did announce a new program intended to support the agriculture industry.
Trump has heard complaints from the agriculture industry in recent weeks that massive raids have disrupted businesses.
Many farms rely upon migrant workers, including workers without legal immigration status.
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Trump last week discussed a program that might offer workers the ability to get a permit to stay in the country, but on Tuesday he insisted there would be no amnesty for such workers when asked about remarks by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“There’s no amnesty,” Trump said. “What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.”
He then asked Rollins to further explain the program, which she said would protect farmers and ensure they had the labor they needed but would not provide amnesty.
Trump added, “We got to give the farmers the people they need, but we’re not talking amnesty.”
It’s note entirely clear what the program would do, but Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in the meeting that her agency “developed a new office to answer the need of our farmers and ranchers and producers.”
“That does not include an amnesty program at all,” she added.
The president last week had signaled deference to farmers who employ migrants without legal status, saying “they know better” in a speech at a “Salute to America” event in Des Moines, Iowa.
He also indicated during his speech that his administration is working on legislation that would permit some migrants without authorization to stay in the country and keep working on farms.
Just last month, he said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo that he wants to support farmers and that the administration will establish a program to allow a pass for migrant workers in the industry.
“I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been, and that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work, a certain group of people work,” the president said. “We’re working on it right now. 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 had earlier acknowledged concerns among the agriculture and hospitality industries that his administration’s immigration enforcement was taking away workers key to those businesses, which led to a pause in enforcement at farms, hotels and other locations.
But days later, the administration seemed to reverse course.