WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump tried to give the agriculture industry a boost this week as Minnesota farmers gathered in Morgan for Farmfest.
Trump, who had briefly stopped deportations of undocumented farm workers before an uproar from some of his base led him to restart them, said this week that his administration would continue to deport criminals, but that he wants to “work with” farmers to find a solution for their workers.
“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC.
Many farm workers are undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for decades and are paying taxes. Trump suggested those workers could leave the United States and reenter through a legal pathway — he mentioned perhaps broadening the H-2A program for agricultural workers.
That program allows foreign workers to legally work for less than a year on a farm or ranch. Farmers who apply for these workers must post their jobs in a way that Americans have priority in filling them. Only if the jobs still go begging can the farmer hire an H-2A visa holder.
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There were about 3,500 H-2A visa holders working on Minnesota farms last year and about 380,000 employed in agriculture across the United States. But because these farm laborers cannot work year-round, the nation’s dairy farmers rarely apply for this program. Trump indicated he might fix that problem and “do something for dairy.”
In his musings, Trump admitted undocumented workers are a key part of the nation’s economy. But he also used disturbing language in discussing the problems the nation’s farmers have with a labor supply.
“People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’ve tried, we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump said undocumented immigrants who work on farms are “very, very special people” who “do it naturally.”
“Naturally … they don’t get a bad back, because if they get a bad back, they die,” Trump said.
Changes to immigration law usually require congressional action. But Trump could try to do it through an executive order.
Either way, he’s expected to get pushback from anti-immigrant supporters who will condemn the plan as an amnesty.
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As of right now, Trump’s plans to help the nation’s farmers are vague.
Paul Bleiberg, a top lobbyist for the National Milk Producers Federation, said that Trump had said similar things about helping farmers with their labor supply before.
“We’ll see what comes of all of this,” Bleiberg said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is a co-sponsor of a bill called the Affordable and Secure Food Act that would provide H-2A visas for year-round jobs for the first time.
The legislation would also streamline the application process and provide greater protection for migrant farm workers. Perhaps more important is that the legislation would establish a pathway to legal status for farm workers and their families after 10 years of agriculture work.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has long sought reforms to the H-2A visa program, including allowing the visas to be effective for up to three years. But it has said it has problems with some of the provisions in the Affordable and Secure Food Act.
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