Original Capital Press article

Published June 16, 2025  

By Don Jenkins

President Trump said he expects to issue an order soon on enforcing immigration laws on farms, saying farmers can’t lose illegal immigrants who turned out to be “great.” 

In comments and a social media post, Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus on cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, while suggesting he will make allowances for illegal immigrants who work in agriculture.  

“They’ve worked for (farmers) for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to have to do something about that,” he said June 13 at the White House.  

“We’re going to have an order on that pretty soon, I think. We can’t do that to our farmers,” he said. “We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”  

Trump’s comments were in line with remarks he made at an April 12 cabinet meeting, in which he instructed cabinet officials to work on a way to allow farms to retain valued workers.  

The administration has yet to propose a plan for exempting farmworkers from immigration enforcement, or clearly said it won’t conduct random raids on farms.  

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted a comment June 15 on X that took a harder line on deporting illegal immigrants, referring to Trump’s campaign rather than his most-recent comments.  

“I fully support President Trump’s America First immigration agenda as stated in his campaign, starting with strong border security and deportations of EVERY illegal alien,” she said. “This agenda is essential to fixing a broken farm-labor economy and restoring integrity to the American workforce.”  

Rollins and Trump’s remarks didn’t match, Worker and Farmer Labor Association CEO Enrique Gastelum said. “They seemed like two completely different statements,” he said. “It’s maddening. It’s like, ‘Can we get a clear answer?’ ”

Immigration enforcement on farms got more attention after reports of ICE raids on farms in California.  A video of farmworkers in Oxnard running from ICE agents shook farmworkers, said Erik Nicholson, a farm-labor consultant in Kennewick, Wash. 

“I think every farmworker in Washington has seen that video multiple times,” he said. “The fear is off the charts.”  

Even if ICE stays away from farms, any immigration enforcement in rural towns will have an effect on farmworkers, Nicholson said. “The narrative is criminals are being targeted. The reality is everybody is vulnerable.”  

National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO Michael Marsh said he appreciated Trump recognizing immigration enforcement poses problems for agriculture.  

“I know workers are scared. Employers are scared, too,” Marsh said. “I hope there’s some strategy that helps us calm the workers,” he said. “In my opinion, it would be best if they talked to us about it first.”  

Trump, in a Truth Social media post June 15, notified ICE to do all it can to deliver the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”  

“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” he said.  

At the G7 summit in Canada June 16, Trump said he wanted to focus on cities, particularly sanctuary cities. “That’s where the people are,” he said.