Trump Pitches To Allow Farmers To Vouch For Illegal Migrant Workers

The Trump administration plans to implement a process whereby farmers in Iowa can vouch for hard-working, law-abiding migrant farmworkers who may be facing deportation, so that they can remain in the U.S.

The proposed process was shared by President Donald Trump during an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday night, kicking off a year of patriotic celebrations meant to honor the nation’s 250th birthday. Trump said the new plan will take place in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and that legislation for the measure is currently being drafted, while speaking Thursday evening from Iowa.

“You know, they’ve had people working for them for years. And we’re going to do something … we’re going to sort of put the farmers in charge,” Trump told the crowd of people in attendance. “If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don’t have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen – if a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristie, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?”

“We don’t want to do [border security] where we take all of the workers off the farms,” Trump added. “We want the farms to do great.”

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Iowa is the nation’s second-largest agricultural exporting state.

While announcing the new plan, Trump cited cases he had heard of when migrants who have worked on farms for 15 years “get thrown out pretty viciously.”