Trump’s plan for migrant agricultural workers triggers the debate on the right

While immigration and customs’ application is continuing its operations in the United States, the debate rages on the law on the “temporary pass” proposed by President Donald Trump for certain agricultural workers and those of the hotel industry.

While visiting “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida with Governor Ron Desantis and Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the president developed his proposal.

“We have a lot of cases where ice will go on the farm, and these are guys who work for 10 to 15 years, no problem. Farmers know them. This is called the farmers’ responsibility or the owner’s responsibility, where they will be largely responsible for these people. And they know these people, they worked in farms for 15 years,” Trump said in Florida on Tuesday.

Trump urges the “temporary pass” from the repression of immigration for key industries: “I cherish our farmers”

Workers in the farm and hotel industry could potentially obtain a “temporary pass” from the Trump administration as ice operations continue. (Getty Images)

“We are going to give them people’s responsibility, and we will have a signature system so that they do not have to go there. They can be legally, they can pay taxes, and everything. They do not get citizenship, but they get other things. And farmers need them to do the work,” he said.

While some Republicans believe that emphasis is on people with criminal history, others criticized the proposal made by the president.

“This is a bad idea. The law should not be applied selectively, with employers politically connected to hiring illegal workers,” said Jessica Mr. Vaughan, director of political studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital in an email.

“Agricultural employers have access to a work visa program which allows them to hire an unlimited number of foreign workers, as long as they pay them a certain salary and offer other advantages. They should not obtain a pass now for their unscrupulous behavior. Hotel employers can obtain seasonal workers, and many of them do it,” she added.

In California, six republican legislators at the state level have signed a letter calling the president to “direct ice and the DHS to concentrate their application operations on criminal immigrants, and when possible to avoid the types of radical raids that instill fear and disruption of the workplace,” KCRA reported.

However, the senator of the republican state Melissa Melendez criticized the position in a post on X concerning the letter.

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The demonstrators confront the agents of the border patrols in Bell, California, on June 19, 2025. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“So, if I have to understand this correctly, we should look in the other direction concerning illegal immigration as long as it is in the construction industries, the hotel or the restaurant? It is far beyond disappointment, it is exasperating,” wrote Melendez.

The White House stressed that this is a question of hierarchy with regard to global deportation efforts, because it was a key promise of the president on the campaign track.

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“The White House is Working Closely Every Day with Department of Agriculture as well as the Department of Homeland Security when It Comes To Worksite Enforcement. And the President’s Focus and the Focus of this Administration is, of Race, To Remve Public Safety Threats from the streets and to do with Especially the violent criminals, that we know are still here because the previous administration, “white house press secretary karoline leavitt said during monday’s press briefing.

In addition, the spokesperson for the White House, Abigail Jackson, told Fox News Digital that the president “remains determined to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in history by removing dangerous and violent criminal foreigners from the American communities and targeting the sanctuar cities which provide of course to the illegal criminals.”

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President Trump walks with secretary Noem and Governor Desantis and others at “Alligator Alcatraz”. (Getty Images)

The president said that “changes are coming!” In the immigration sectors for the agriculture and hotel sectors in a social post of truth on June 12. A few days later, the TSAR of the Tom Homan border noted that the application of the site was underway “even on farms and hotels, but on the basis of a priority base”, but said that “the criminals came first”, according to the first time “,” Axios June 19.

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Trump also explained the concept on “Sunday Morning Futures” this week, saying that he is “the strongest immigration guy that has ever been, but I am also the strongest farmer guy there has ever been”.

Fox News Digital contacted DHS and ICE to comment.