WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox News that the administration is working to develop a temporary pass for immigrants who work in certain industries, which would be the latest shift in the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement for farmworkers.
“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 said in an interview that was recorded Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Trump referred to authorities going to farms and taking “away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who are good, who possibly came in 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. The farmer knows. He’s not going to hire a murderer,” Trump said. “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.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security provided the same comment the department gave this month after the White House reversed a plan to limit immigration enforcement activity at certain industry workplaces.
"The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts," the statement read.
"Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability. These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation," it continued.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson declined Monday to provide additional information about Trump's plans and referred NBC News to his remarks.
The move is the latest shift in the administration’s handling of immigrant farmworkers. The White House has waffled in recent weeks about whether to exempt certain worksites from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Trump said June 12 on Truth Social that farmers and people in the hotel and leisure industries had said the administration’s immigration policy “is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” He said that “we must protect our Farmers,” adding that “changes are coming.” NBC News has reported that at around the same time, ICE paused worksite arrests in the agriculture, restaurant and hotel industries.
But just days later, the administration reopened arrests of immigrant workers in those industries. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided the same statement then as the DHS statement Sunday.
“The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” McLaughlin said after DHS reversed the pause this month.
A White House spokesperson said after the pause was reversed that Trump “remains committed to enforcing federal immigration law — anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation.”
Trump in April floated the idea that undocumented people working at farms and hotels could be allowed to leave the country and return legally. NBC News has reported that an administration official said Trump wanted to improve H-2A and H-2B programs, which allow employers to temporarily hire migrant workers.
