Trump Floats Plan to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers
April 11, 2025
President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested a new program will be set up to help legalize farm workers and reduce the risk of farmers losing undocumented workers to mass deportations.
Trump discussed easing restrictions around undocumented farm labor during a Cabinet meeting Thursday. It was the first time the president had signaled a willingness to temper his mass deportation plans to help protect the labor pool for industries such as agriculture.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem highlighted border security and deportations, noting thousands of people have self-deported back to their home countries in the past two months.
Trump commented, "It's a very big self-deport that we're started."
The president then said farmers and other businesses need workers. Undocumented workers will be given a chance to self-deport and return to the country legally, he said. That should be an incentive for people in the country illegally to identify themselves under the Alien Registration Act with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
"We're going to work with people so that if they go out in a nice way and go back to their country, we're going to work them right from the beginning on trying to get them back legally," Trump said. "So that gives you a real incentive."
Trump suggested undocumented workers would have the chance to return to the country legally within a certain time frame, "which is probably going to be 60 days," he said.
For farmers, the president said farm workers who register would not have to immediately leave the country but could instead remain working on a farm -- at least for a temporary period.
"We're also going to work with our farmers so if they have strong recommendations for their farms, for certain people, we're going to let them stay in for a while and work with farmers and come back and go through a process, a legal process," Trump said.
Trump added, "We have to take care of our farmers, the hotels, and you know, various, various places where they need the people."
The president told Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in the Cabinet meeting that her department would work with farmers to help verify worker status on farms.
"A farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people saying they're great, they're working hard," Trump said. "We're going to slow down a little bit for them, and then we're going to ultimately bring them back. They'll go out, they're going to come back as legal workers, OK?"
A USDA Farm Labor Survey released in January pegged the percentage of undocumented agricultural workers at around 42%, or roughly 500,000 people, working in crops. A large share of those undocumented workers is also considered "settled" instead of migrant workers.
To fill the void of assuring they have legal labor, farmers' H-2A programs have grown in recent years and now fill more than 384,000 job positions. In the 2024 fiscal year, roughly 22,000 farms used H-2A guest workers. One of the complications with that program, however, is the workers are considered temporary, so livestock farmers are typically unable to use the H-2A program.
Farm groups have been pressing Congress for years to pass legislation that would allow year-round guest workers. At least some of those bills also have included provisions that would legalize farm workers in the country who currently are undocumented. The House passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in 2021, but it stalled in the Senate.
In the Cabinet meeting, Noem pressed for people in the country illegally to register. Trump signed an executive order requiring undocumented people to register with Customs and Border Patrol or potentially face criminal charges. Noem said once people register, her department is looking for funds to buy them plane tickets back to their home countries. Noem suggested people who do so would have an opportunity to return to the U.S. legally.
"So, making sure that these folks have the opportunity to go home, so that they can get the chance to come back to America is important," Noem said.
Rollins, when she spoke in the Cabinet meeting, also addressed farmers and tariffs, telling Trump the agricultural community supports his action. Rollins said farmers are facing high inflation for inputs and also a $50 billion agricultural trade deficit (projected for 2025). Farmers support Trump's idea of using tariffs, deregulation and tax cuts to improve prosperity, she said.
"The period of uncertainty we are in, they know your vision will move us into an age of prosperity for all Americans, but for my people, for the farmers and ranchers, unlike any they have seen before," Rollins said. "And I think they are really, really excited and grateful for your leadership, but also you have never failed to say that you have the backs of our farmers and ranchers."
Source: DTN
