President Donald Trump hinted Thursday that his immigration policy could soon shift, acknowledging concerns from farmers and business owners impacted by the recent crackdown on illegal immigration.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said hotel and agricultural leaders have raised concerns over losing longtime workers. “Taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote. He stressed the need to remove criminals while protecting key sectors like farming.
“In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs,” he said. “This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
Later in the day, Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House and signaled an official policy update was on the way. “Farmers are being hurt badly,” he said. “They have very good workers who have worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great, and we’re going to have to do something about that.”
Trump emphasized that deporting these workers creates a worse problem. “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back,” he said. “And you know what’s going to happen, what is happening — they get rid of some of their people … and they end up hiring the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.”
The president’s remarks come as ICE continues aggressive enforcement in Southern California. Immigration agents were seen detaining workers on streets, at businesses, and even on farms in Ventura County earlier this week.
Trump did not give a specific timeline but said a new executive action on immigration enforcement would be coming “pretty soon.”