The past month has produced a curious verbal merry-go-round for President Donald Trump on immigration.
On the one hand, he wants raids and mass deportations. At the same time, he keeps suggesting ways for certain industries to avoid that crackdown.
The president has talked repeatedly about a “temporary pass” for migrants as a way to supply more foreign workers — who would presumably earn a lower wage — for farms, hotels and restaurants.
But that ran into opposition from some of his strongest MAGA supporters.
Trump tried to start poking holes in his own immigration raids back in June, after hearing complaints from certain industry leaders.
“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.
At first, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials listened. But a few days later, the feds reversed course.
Last week, Trump again floated the idea of not deporting migrants if they worked in the hotel and restaurant industries or in farm labor.
At a stop in Iowa, Trump acknowledged that his stance might aggravate his supporters.
“Serious radical right people, who I happen to like, may not be quite as happy,” he said.
He was right.
By the time a White House Cabinet meeting rolled around Tuesday, Trump was trying to tamp down frustration inside the GOP, specifically saying no “amnesty” would be involved for any foreign workers.
“Just as President Trump said: NO AMNESTY,” U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, said in a social media post.
When it comes to migrant farmworkers, the irony is that Republican lawmakers in Congress have tried for years to broaden and streamline the existing H2A farmworker visa program — without offering a path to citizenship.
How important are migrant farmworkers to U.S. agriculture? Georgia had the second largest number of H2A foreign workers in 2024, according to the Farm Bureau, with more than 43,000, trailing only Florida.
Former Georgia U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss tried repeatedly while in office to update the H2A program. He offered plans that failed often because of the word “amnesty,” which still dominates the GOP debate on anything related to immigration.
Years later, nothing has changed. Cries of “amnesty” are exactly what greeted Trump in recent days.
It’s obvious Trump wants to provide some sort of legal pathway for farm and hospitality workers. But can he find a way to placate his MAGA base?
So far, he isn’t there. But he’s still trying to thread the needle.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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