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A “temporary pass” to allow farmers and hospitality businesses to retain some illegal workers is currently in the works, according to President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News on Sunday, the President said he was trying to be both “the strongest immigration guy that there’s even been” and also the “strongest farmers [and hotels] guy.”
“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 President explained.
“The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murderer. But you know, 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.”
The President continued: “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.”
Bartiromo asked the President whether the new move was a response to the “clumsy” execution of his mass-deportation policy, which has meant “people were afraid to go to work.” The President responded that his policy was “unbelievable,” and that it was President Biden’s immigration policies that were clumsy.
President Trump indicated at the beginning of June that he was considering a temporary pass for workers in certain industries, and during a cabinet meeting in April, he said that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said there should be a pathway for “certain people” who farmers want to “stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and go through a legal process.”
Meanwhile, Border Czar Tom Homan has said that immigration raids on farms, hotels and restaurants will continue.
“There’s a right way and wrong way to hire workers,” Homan said a few weeks ago.
“There are legal programs that bring farm workers in… I’ve been saying for years that Congress needs to address this, but because Congress failed, it just doesn’t mean we ignore it. It’s illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien.”
