Posted on 08/05/2025 8:55:39 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will release new rules and regulations on migrant farm labor, as the country’s need for workers and the food they help produce clashes with his vow to deport undocumented immigrants.
Trump said his administration will continue to deport criminals, but that he wants to “work with” farmers to find a solution for their workers, oftentimes immigrants who have lived in the country illegally for decades and are paying taxes. He suggested the White House was working on a touchback program for some workers, requiring them to leave the U.S. and reenter through a legal pathway, an idea that faces strong opposition among immigration hawks who view exceptions for one industry as a slippery slope.
Trump teases new policy for migrant farm labor Officials are debating how to placate farmers’ need for migrant labor without appearing to offer amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will release new rules and regulations on migrant farm labor, as the country’s need for workers and the food they help produce clashes with his vow to deport undocumented immigrants.
Trump said his administration will continue to deport criminals, but that he wants to “work with” farmers to find a solution for their workers, oftentimes immigrants who have lived in the country illegally for decades and are paying taxes. He suggested the White House was working on a touchback program for some workers, requiring them to leave the U.S. and reenter through a legal pathway, an idea that faces strong opposition among immigration hawks who view exceptions for one industry as a slippery slope.
“In some cases, we’re sending them back to their country with a pass back in legally…we’re sending them back and then they’re schooling, they’re learning, they’re coming in, they’re coming in legally. We have a lot of that going on, but we’re taking care of our farmers,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “We can’t let our farmers not have anybody.”
The policy debate has roiled the White House for months, as the president’s aides weigh ideas from across the administration. Officials are debating how to placate farmers’ need for migrant labor without appearing to offer amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
Administration officials have also discussed expanding access to the H-2A program for non-seasonal agricultural industries, like dairy, an issue that has long received Republican support — but it would fall short of replacing the estimated 320,000 undocumented farm workers already in the U.S. And any touchback program, or moves that provide these workers with a path to legal status, will be criticized by immigration hawks who view such exceptions as a form of amnesty.
Trump, who has appeared sympathetic to both farmers and immigration hawks, said Tuesday that the farm laborers aren’t easy to replace — an argument that runs up against critics’ argument that native-born workers could fill the jobs. The president said “people that live in the inner city” won’t do the work.
“They’ve tried. We’ve tried, Everybody’s tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally. Naturally,” Trump said. “I said ‘what happens’ — to a farmer the other day — ’what happens if they get a bad back?’ He said, ‘they don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die.’ I said, ‘that’s interesting.’ In many ways, they’re very very special people.”
Trump did not say who told him this.
The farmers can hire the fired federal workers.
Disgusting.
It’s amazing how many Americans knew how to farm before LBJ created the welfare state.
The administration MAGA pivot is worrying. I guess 47 is getting garbage advice again.
If you’re here illegally, you gotta go.
No exceptions. Because one exception will almost certainly turn into a dozen exceptions.
In the 1950s, different types of young people learned about cotton farming by hand even though there was automation. They also had plenty of energy to sing and dance after being in the field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sChbvgTLVTc&t=111s
It has Mamie Van Doren.
I did two summer seasons of farm labor in my early teens. Detasseling corn. It was hot, laborious, and nonstop. Every day get on the bus and go to a new field, and repeat until the season is over.
It sucked overall, but those jobs were always meant for teenagers looking to make a few bucks before high school started. Now teens can’t get those jobs at all because the Mexicans take them permanently, no thanks to the cheapskate farmers.
Trump is way out of his element on this one and he’s going to screw Americans over just like every other president has.
We are no longer a nation of farmers. And LBJ had zip to do with it. The world changed...we expect our kids to go to college and or work...but not in the fields...
No. An exception becomes a loophole and a loophole becomes a trap and a trap hurts like hell.
There’s at least 45 million illegals in America. Wonder how many actually are agricultural workers.
Why bother? No one ENFORCES the laws ANYWAYS.
Imagine Oliver Douglas with a farm crew of those types.
I didn’t vote for this bait and switch stuff we have been getting.
I have no issue with expanding that legal farm labor program IF it is coupled with tighter administrative enforcement to ensure they do not overstay.
1) They need to leave. No staying here being "deemed worthy".
2) Need to put teeth into it. The farmers need to be responsible for ALL aspects of the migrant - healthcare, lodging, food, everything.
3) If the migrant leaves the farm for other purposes then the farmer needs to be financially and criminally liable.
Under these conditions it could maybe work.
And to be clear, that would require recording of biometric data for each and every worker admitted. Violating the terms of your visa even once, and you are banned permanently.
Part time farm labor is a good experience for teens, it will give them a perspective about what actual hard work is. In other words, character building.
You make it sound 3rd world.
Inner-city folks aren’t willing to work? I think 2 Thessalonians 3:10 addresses that situation.
I would accept this if your #2 was strictly adhered to. No medical and welfare given to any of them.
If that isn’t good enough, they get sent home.
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