Trump has primarily spoken about making entry into the U.S. merit-based but claimed in a speech to the agriculture industry today that he would take care of their workers, too.
‘When we have proper security, people aren’t going to come, except for the people we want to come, because we want to take people in to help our farmers. We’re gonna make that actually easier for them to help the farmers, because you need these people,’ he said.
Repeating himself Trump pledged: ‘I’m gonna make that easier for them to come in and work the farms.’
The president said the intent of his border wall is to keep out criminal immigrants and suspected terrorists.
‘We’re keeping the wrong ones out. We don’t want the wrong ones coming into our country. And for that, it’s going to be almost impossible to get in,’ he stated.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the immigration overhaul he envisions will make it ‘easier’ for illegal immigrants working on farms to stay in the United States.
‘But the people that work the farms, that have been here, that have gone through this very short but good process that they’re gonna help our country, it’s gonna be easier for them to get in than what they have to go through now so just remember that.’
Surveys have shown that roughly half of farm workers are illegal immigrants. In the West, that number is even higher.
Some farmers are bringing in guest workers on H-2A visas but would prefer not to because of the associated costs for lodging and other requirements.
Trump appeared to be promoting reforms to that specific visa category.
USDA announced last May in a joint statement with Labor, State and Homeland Security that the agencies were ‘working in coordination to propose streamlining, simplifying and improving the H-2A temporary agriculture visa program – reducing cumbersome bureaucracy and ensuring adequate protections for U.S. workers.’
They proposed a rule change that they hope to put in place in time for the 2020 growing season.
Trump again declared in his speech on Monday that a physical barrier is more effective than drones or sensors on their owns to achieving that goal.
‘There is no substitute for a wall or physical barrier. There is no substitute,’ he said.
Alluding to the partial government shutdown, the president said he would ‘never back down’ from his pursuit of safety for the American people.
He’s demanding billions for a border wall and refusing to reopen the government until he gets it.
Trump on Monday slapped down a proposal from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Republican confidant, to reopen the federal government for three weeks while he negotiates with congressional Democrats over funding for his long-promised border wall.
‘That was a suggestion that Lindsey made, but I did reject it,’ Trump told reporters as he left the snow-swept White House for a speech in New Orleans.
About one-quarter of the federal budget has been on pause since December 21 in the longest-ever shutdown as the White House tangles with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over how to secure the U.S.-mexico border.
‘I’m not interested,’ Trump said of a temporary pause. ‘I want to get it solved. I don’t want to just delay it. I want to get it solved.’
A White House official told DailyMail.com on Monday that the president has ‘zero confidence’ Pelosi and Schumer would change their position if he were to sign a short-term spending bill, ‘and that might just embolden them.’
President Donald Trump has rejected the idea of reopening the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over funding for his border wall
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Trump confidant, proposed the idea over the weekend as a good-faith gesture to bring Democrats back to the table
The president hasn’t taken his foot off the gas pedal, bashing Democrats for leaving Washington while government employees wait to find out when their paychecks will return.
‘I’ve been here all weekend,’ he groused. ‘A lot of Democrats are in Puerto Rico, celebrating something, I don’t know. Maybe they’re celebrating the shutdown.’
And he didn’t express any confidence that the shutdown’s days are numbered, although he described Republicans as ‘rock solid’ and claimed of Democrats that ‘many of them are calling and many of them are breaking.
‘I don’t know if we’re close on a deal,’ Trump said. ‘This should be the easiest deal that I’ve ever seen. We’re talking about border security. Who could be against it?’
‘We’re talking about drugs pouring in, human traffickers tying up women, putting tape on their mouths, and pouring into our country. We can’t have that. We can’t have that. We have drugs, we have criminals, we have gangs. And the Democrats don’t want to do anything about it.’
Trump has said he won’t sign a budget that would reopen the government unless it includes $5.7 billion in new spending to complete portions of his border barrier.
With Pelosi and Schumer standing in his way, a remaining option is for the president to declare a national emergency and use existing Defense Department funds, tasking the Army Corps of Engineers to serve as his border wall’s general contractor.
Trump has resisted the temptation, and appeared no closer on Monday to taking that tempting off-ramp from the crisis.
‘I’m not looking to call a national emergency. This is so simple, you shouldn’t have to,’ he said. ‘Now, I have the absolute legal right to call it, but I’m not looking to do that.
Trump claimed that Democrats ‘are stopping us, and they’re stopping a lot of great people from getting paid.’
‘All they have to do is say, “We want border security.” That automatically means a wall or a barrier.’