(NewsNation) — The Trump administration’s “no amnesty” policy for farm workers in the U.S. illegally has some GOP members concerned about meeting current needs for agricultural production.
On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the administration’s targeting of farms in recent immigration raids.
“There will never be amnesty under President Trump,” Noem said. “The president is very clear that he doesn’t believe that the law should apply to some people and not to others and that there should be consequences for some people and not for others.”
Some GOP lawmakers are concerned that this stance will only further hinder struggling American farmers, who are having to navigate mounting labor shortages and high interest rates. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 40% of the nation’s crop workers are in the U.S. illegally.
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Speaking to NewsNation’s Joe Khalil on Thursday, Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said he’d like to see some sort of visa program created for such workers.
“If we can provide a visa program that allows people to work in our agricultural industry using a legal process, that is so much better than encouraging illegal immigration,” Moolenaar said. “And that way, agriculture workers can support their families, and we can harvest the crops in the field.”
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, says representatives in agricultural states have had ongoing conversations about the best ways to legally ensure migrant workers can continue to meet the needs of the agriculture industry.
“We have legal workers who come back year after year, they are known to their employer,” she told NewsNation. “So, looking at that system, now that the southern border is secure, we have additional funding to complete the fence and all of the technology, I think we can start looking at ‘how do we treat seasonal workers, how do we treat agricultural workers?’ On the legal aspects, start there, first, and then to other provisions. That is a conversation that has already been had and that the president and Secretary Noem are already looking at.”
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Following Noem’s commentary, White House border czar Tom Homan told “CUOMO” that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would “abide” by any policy changes regarding how farm workers illegally in the U.S. are handled.
“I know they are talking now, and I expect something will come out soon. So, we’ll see where it goes,” Homan said. “I don’t want to get ahead of the president on what I think is coming or if something is even coming, but I know people are talking.”
Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., is the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. He told NewsNation he’s worked with the administration on ensuring agriculture needs are met.
“People that are here temporarily, temporary means temporary, and I get that,” he said. “But I have expressed my concerns that if we don’t have reliability of workforce with agricultural production and agricultural processing, then we have food insecurity. If we have food insecurity, we have rural insecurity, which impacts our nation, and in the end, we have national insecurity.”
He says he is concerned about current workers not working during the ICE enforcement.
“Right now, that is what we need to have so that these folks [workers] are not removed, I want to make that very clear. When they do that, two things happen: No. 1, you remove workers from the production area; secondly, you create a fear factor that even people here legally are afraid and don’t show up. I have shared that very openly with the administration, and I love this administration because they receive feedback, and quite frankly, they take critical observations, and I have found that they use them in formulating their policies,” he said.
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He also says the agricultural committee has been working for years on finding solutions to ensure there are enough workers in agriculture.
“The excuse in the past when we tried to work on foreign worker issues was that the border was open,” he said. “America is in control of the border now. That is no longer an excuse that keeps Congress from doing its job.”
Thompson says he and others have been working on a bipartisan bill regarding migrant farm workers, and they are likely to introduce the bill in September.
