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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.
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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Plus, the more "makes sense" programs we have, the more likely it is that more members of Congress will support their enforcement.
That’s a pretty dumb question on it’s face. I’m not “pro illegal” anything. There are obviously not many farmers on this forum. Why not make a way to have cheap imported LEGAL labor without it costing the taxpayers? Trump is on the right track here. Not everyone in this country has to be a citizen, but certain privileges like voting, and benefits should be reserved for citizens. And don’t count them on the census. Just make the immigrant farm workers register for a temporary work permit, check them out for any kind of criminal record, and if they are clean, let them come work. I’ll take one “wetback” farm worker over ten of the “legal citizen” inner city youths any day. So let’s make a legal way for them to come and work.
We have had temporary farm worker visas as long as I remember. When I was in college at Fresno there were busloads of foreign farm workers going up and down the I5 corridor following the season. Then, winter time, they all went home.
How about paying competitive wages to American workers?
No reason ag should be a special case.
How about paying competitive wages for ag workers?
(And I’ve got decades in farming.)
And no, we don’t need cheap legal labor either. American workers would take the jobs at decent wages. Our entire school system is still scheduled around the seasonal work that students used to do around the farm harvesting schedule.
There is no reason for ag workers to be paid less than similarly skilled workers in suburban or urban environments.
And the taxpayer doesn’t need to pay for them. It is low-skill legal and illegal laborers that cost taxpayers billions and billions and billions of dollars a year.
I agree with this. Guest workers.
Grant them work visas for 6 months.
Your attitude toward Americans disgusts me.
Not again...
He had better not!
I don’t know if I’d call it actual farm labor, but in summers starting at 14 I’d pick berries and grapes for local farmers. Guess it WAS farming.
When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers
Finally was out until midnight, while in college, running the tractor through remote fields to cut the alfalfa to haul back to feed the cows at midnight. I still had homework to do. I heard Uncle Sam calling and never went back.
Don't tell me farm work is easy. Yes, it does build character.
Very bad
Now that I think about it, the HB program IS far worse than this. It is a spy factory
**Plus, the more “makes sense” programs we have, the more likely it is that more members of Congress will support their enforcement.**
Kurt Gowdy wouldn’t do it. He be gone.
THEY ARE NOT PAYING TAXES:
THEY GET PAID SO LITTLE-—THEY DO NOT PAY TAXES:
THEY HAND IN W-4 CARDS THAT SAY 8 DEPENDENTS.
LOW PAY & 8 DEPENDENTS===NO STATE OR FEDERAL TAXES WITHHELD
WAS DOING PAYROLL FOR AN EGG COMPANY:
GOT W-4 from 18 year old SINGLE GUY who claimed 8 dependents.
I CHALLENGED IT.
FARM MANAGER SAID-—HE IS SENDING $$$ BACK TO MEXICO FOR HIS FAMILY.
HAD A LONG & CONTENTIOUS DISCUSSION ABOUT THE IRS RULES ON THAT TOPIC.
SAID HE WOULD NOT BE ON PAYROLL UNTIL I GOT A CLEAN W-4.
GOT ONE THAT SAID S-1.
IT WAS A NEVER ENDING BATTLE
WORKING TOBACCO FIELDS IS ANOTHER PLACE FOR TEENS
MAYBE 1 IN 100
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