President Donald Trump is worried that he is going to upset his “serious radical right” voters by allowing some migrants to stay in the U.S. to work on farms, despite their “illegal” status.
Last month, Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop raids on farms and in the service sector. Trump returned to the issue while speaking to supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, in a campaign-style speech on Thursday.
“We’re working on legislation right now where farmers, look, they know better. They work with them for years,” Trump said, referring to migrant workers.
“You had cases where, not here, but just even over the years where people have worked for a farm, on a farm for 14, 15 years and they get thrown out pretty viciously and we can’t do it,” he added, appearing to reverse course on his hardline approach to immigration.
He went on: “We gotta work with the farmers, and people that have hotels and leisure properties too. We’re gonna work with them and we’re gonna work very strong and smart, and we’re gonna put you in charge. We’re gonna make you responsible and I think that that’s going to make a lot of people happy.
“Now, serious radical right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy but they’ll understand. Won’t they? Do you think so?”
The Midwestern state’s main industry is agriculture, so the crowd appeared largely pleased with Trump’s change of tack.
At one point he turned to fellow immigration hardliner Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security chief nicknamed ICE Barbie, and said: “If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way, Kristi, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?”
“We don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms,” he added.
Some MAGA hardliners are already sounding off about the move, though. Far-right influencer and conspiracist Jack Posobiec led the charge, using the memory of Mollie Tibbetts—who was killed in 2018—for political gain.
The murderer of Mollie Tibbetts was a Mexican illegal who worked on a dairy farm in IowaShe was brutally murdered just an hour away from the Iowa fairgrounds
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 4, 2025
“The murderer of Mollie Tibbetts was a Mexican illegal who worked on a dairy farm in Iowa,” he wrote on X Friday. “She was brutally murdered just an hour away from the Iowa fairgrounds.”
Mike Cernovich, a longtime far-right commentator with a massive online following, complained of a “great betrayal.”
“What percentage of hotels are owned by Americans? It’s much lower than it used to be,” he wrote on X.
“How can you compete when a H-1B gets a tax break and low or no interest loan? Now Trump is talking about giving them even more – amnesty for their workers? This would be a great betrayal.”
Far-right political pundit Nick Fuentes said the move is tantamount to “spitting in the face of the plan trusters.”
It comes after Trump, in June, posted on Truth Social about farmers complaining that his approach to immigration would affect the performance of their businesses.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” wrote Trump. “We must protect our Farmers.”
The main thrust of his immigration rhetoric revolved around ridding the U.S. of violent criminals. He tasked individual farmers to “take responsibility” and weed out criminals themselves.
A 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture report found that around 40 percent of farm workers in the country are undocumented.
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