White House backs down on amnesty for illegal farm workers

For the last month, reports have circulated that the Trump Administration was looking at ways it could provide an amnesty to illegal alien workers in the agricultural and hospitality industries. It began with a Truth Social post by the president in mid-June, expressing sympathy for employers in these industries who employed illegal workers.

Although little has developed since then, the debate has continued. At a rally last weekend, Pres. Trump made the following statement:

"If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way... 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 the workers off the farms."

But on Tuesday, the talk of amnesty may have been put to rest. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that there would be no amnesty for illegal farm workers, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan has been making the media rounds, also saying that there would be no amnesty.

Massive pushback from the America First movement may have caused the White House's sudden retreat. Conservative influencers and groups, including the Immigration Accountability Project, turned to social media to plead with the president not to reward illegal aliens or their employers with an amnesty.

There's some debate over what constitutes an "amnesty." Some claim that only offering a "path to citizenship" to illegal aliens can be called an amnesty. However, as we posted on our X account, Black's Law Dictionary defines an amnesty as the "act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of persons who are subject to trial but have not been convicted." In other words, waiving the legal consequences (deportation) of a violation of federal law (illegal presence in the United States) is an amnesty regardless of whether the act also conveys a "path to citizenship."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 13 million working-age Americans are seeking full-time employment but can't find it. If Pres. Trump wants to stay true to his America First agenda, his administration should continue its worksite enforcement efforts across all industries, and help open up jobs for unemployed Americans.

Commentary

Trump Building a Wall Around Federal Benefits
IAP’s Jared Culver dives into recent Trump Administration activity to cut off taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens. “We have been waiting since President Trump’s signature on his own executive order to see it manifest at the agency level. That wait is over.”

Immigration News

DHS ends 26-year-old temporary deportation amnesty for Hondurans, Nicaraguans
This week, DHS took the long-overdue and necessary step of ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaragua and Honduras after 26 years of “temporary” status. This program, initially intended as a short-term humanitarian measure following a 1998 hurricane, was improperly extended for decades, effectively becoming a backdoor amnesty program that has been perpetuated by presidents ever since. The Trump Administration is rightfully enforcing the original, temporary intent of the law by ending status for the roughly 55,000 aliens whose home countries have now had more than a quarter-century to recover.

'Trump was right' - John Kerry says Democrats allowed migrant 'siege' of US border
This BBC article discusses recent comments by former Secretary of State John Kerry, who stated that his own Democratic party was wrong on immigration and allowed the U.S. border to be "under siege." Kerry said that "Trump was right" about the need for a secure border, and that Democrats' failure to address the issue gave Republicans a political advantage.

Next Week

The House and Senate are both in town next week. 

Leader Thune has filed cloture on the nomination of Joe Edlow as Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with a vote anticipated early next week. As our coalition wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in May, “We urge the Senate to confirm Joseph Edlow as Director of USCIS without delay. His expertise, integrity, and unwavering commitment to a secure and efficient immigration system make him the right leader to guide USCIS in serving the American people.”

There will be a couple of hearings worth tuning in to from the House Homeland Security Committee:

• Tuesday, July 15th, at 2pm: “Case-by-Case: Returning Parole to its Proper Purpose”

• Wednesday, July 16th at 10am: “An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis”