Trump urges 'temporary pass' from immigration crackdown for key industries: 'I cherish our farmers'
"I don't back away. What I do have, I cherish our farmers," the president said when asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the issue. "And when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who were good, who possibly came in incorrectly. And 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. The farmer knows he's not going to hire a murderer."
"But you know, when you go into a farm and you set 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," he said.
"It's a problem. You know, I'm on both sides of the thing. 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 added.
"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," he continued, emphasizing that "criminals are going out of this country."
On June 12, the president made similar comments about hotels and farms potentially running into issues as the result of federal immigration enforcement.
"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," Trump posted to Truth Social.
"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!"
On June 19, border czar Tom Homan signaled that those operations would still continue, but it's not a major focus.
"The message is clear that we're going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations – even on farms and hotels but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first," Homan said, according to Axios.
ICE and DHS referred to the White House, and the White House deferred to the president's remarks when Fox News Digital reached out. The comments from the president come as the administration aims to ramp up deportation efforts, whether it's those with criminal charges and convictions or who entered the country illegally under the Biden administration. At the border itself, apprehensions and gotaway figures have taken a nosedive since Trump took office.
DHS is also encouraging those without a criminal history to self-deport by offering $1,000 and free travel outside the United States. ICE operations have been the subject of protests and even riots, including in Los Angeles.
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