White House border czar Tom Homan on July 16 indicated that Trump administration officials are evaluating policies related to illegal immigrant workers in certain industries, such as agriculture and hospitality.
In an interview with NewsNation, Homan said that officials from the Department of Agriculture, the Labor Department, and Homeland Security are “talking about policy changes now.” No details were provided.
“The president committed there will be no amnesty, but there are a lot of smart minds at the White House talking about is there something for farm workers, is there something for hospitality,” he said.
“My job is to operate within the framework provided me by the administration. So, if the president comes up with a policy, and says, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do with farm workers,’ then ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will abide by that policy.”
Homan’s comment comes after President Donald Trump said in a July 8 Cabinet meeting that there would be no amnesty for farm workers who may be illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem echoed those remarks in a recent live event.
“There’s no amnesty,” Trump said. “What we’re doing is getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that about 40 percent of the nation’s farm workers “lack legal immigration status,” with the share of illegal immigrant agriculture laborers growing from 14 percent between 1989 and 1991 to nearly 55 percent a decade later. That figure has declined to roughly 40 percent in recent years, according to the agency.
“What I think is so remarkable, is that we’ll let them come back the right way and we’re facilitating that today,” Noem said on July 16. “So, every individual that’s here in this country that’s concerned, or every farmer out there who has someone that’s working for them that’s concerned, work with getting them home and so they can come back the right way.”
Those remarks came weeks after Trump said he would soon issue an order to address the effects of his crackdown on illegal immigration on the country’s agriculture and hospitality industries.
“Our farmers are being hurt badly … and we’re going to have to do something about that. … We’re going to have an order on that pretty soon, I think,” Trump said at a White House event on June 12, adding that the order would address the hotels sector, too.
U.S. farm industry groups want Trump to spare their sector from mass deportations, which they say could upend a food supply chain dependent on illegal immigrant farm labor.
Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, a leading farm lobby, has said that farm workers were key to the nation’s food supply.
“If these workers are not present in fields and barns, there is a risk of supply chain disruptions similar to those experienced during the pandemic,” Duvall said in a June 12 statement.
The Epoch Times reached out to the departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Homeland Security for comment but received no response by publication time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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