President Trump zigzagged again on the issue of illegal farm workers. In his speech at “Salute to America” in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump intimated that these workers might get some kind of reprieve from immigration law enforcement.
A while back Trump floated this idea, only to back off after an outcry from many of his supporters. Now he is singing the same tune again, no doubt at the behest of agricultural lobbies which like the ease and convenience of using cheap illegal labor.
He would do well to resist their advice, and tell them that they are not above the law. If they truly can’t find Americans to do their jobs, they can make use of the H-2B program to bring in legal temporary workers. Some growers resist using it because the program because they say it’s cumbersome to navigate. To deal with that, Trump should back changes to make it more user-friendly.
Also, he should support incentives for farmers, over a period of time, to automate their operations. Tax credits are one possibility. Increasingly, the technology is available to eliminate the difficult and repetitive jobs that most people, native and foreign-born, really don’t want to do.
In any case, the concerns about farm labor should not hamper the overall effort to deport illegal aliens. Illegals in agriculture are only about five percent of all illegals who hold jobs in the United States. No crops will rot in the fields if 95 percent of them go home.
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