By Clint Thompson
President Trump’s immigration policy has been a point of contention across the country. It has also created concern among the agricultural industry about what deportations might mean to an already slim labor force.
He addressed the issue in a Truth Social post last week.
“Our great farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the criminals allowed into our country by the very stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our farmers but get the criminals out of the U.S.A. Changes are coming!”
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins testified before the House Ag Committee on Wednesday about various topics impacting the country’s farmers. She also addressed the labor issue in agriculture.
“I spoke with the president about it (last week). I had a meeting with both Secretary (Kristi) Noem and Secretary (Lori) Chavez-DeRemer (last Monday night). The president in an April 10 cabinet meeting on his own talked about it,” Rollins said. “There is no doubt that first of all, significant reform needs to happen to the H-2A, H-2B (programs), which I know you are leading on in a bi-partisan effort. Also, the importance of our administration and this president, which he does, recognize that we have a major gap in the labor market; for our dairy farmers, a lot of our row croppers, and how you balance that with his commitment to America and the American voters, which we don’t all agree on, to address illegal immigration. Please know that I’m committed to working around the clock to solve for that.”