Trump weighs measures to bring farm workers back to US legally

Trump suggested that migrants seeking to reenter would need to remain outside the US for about two months. Bloomberg

President Donald Trump said he is looking to allow undocumented farm and hospitality industry workers to leave the US for a short period of time and reenter the country legally, a bid to address concerns about labor shortages from his crackdown on undocumented migration.

“We’re going to work with people so that if they go out in a nice way, go back to their country, we’re going to work with them right from the beginning on trying to get them back in legally,” Trump said Thursday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, suggesting the framework would give better certainty to those seeking work and businesses eager to hire people legally in the country.

Trump suggested that migrants seeking to reenter would need to remain outside the US for about two months.

“It gives you real incentive. Otherwise they never come back,” he said. “They’ll never be allowed once a certain period of time goes by, which is probably going to be 60 days.”

Trump has ramped up mass deportations of immigrants who entered the US illegally, moves that have raised worries among some business leaders about a shortfall in workers.

Foreign-born workers comprise nearly 20% of the US labor force, compared with about 17% prior to the pandemic, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Economists and business leaders have lauded immigration for filling vacancies across the economy, but Trump and allies say migrants lower wages and take jobs from native-born Americans.

Trump said he would work with business to protect needed workers, saying “we have to take care of our farmers and hotels and, you know, various, various places where they’re using, where they need the people.”

“We’re also going to work with farmers that 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 the farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process,” Trump said.

Trump campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration, seizing on a border crisis under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, that strained communities across the country and fueled worries about crime and jobs.

While frustration has grown within the administration over the initial pace of deportations, the efforts have led to high-profile raids and social-media campaigns urging undocumented migrants to self-deport, fueling fear among immigrant communities.