White House tries to calm industry worries over migrant workers amid aggressive deportation campaign

Senior Trump officials and the president himself have grappled with the consequences of their immigration crackdown against a key portion of the workforce: migrant workers.

As the Trump administration has doubled down on its hardline immigration agenda, behind the scenes senior Trump officials and the president himself have grappled with the consequences of that crackdown against a key portion of the workforce: migrant workers. President Donald Trump has wavered repeatedly on the topic: At times he has suggested farms and other industries employing migrants should be protected, even as he and some top aides have pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to intensify its immigration sweeps. “We’re working on it right now,” Trump said Tuesday. “We have a lot of cases where ICE would go into a farm and these are guys that have been there 10 or 15 years, and the farmers know them – it’s called farmer responsibility. Or owner responsibility. But they’re going to be largely responsible for these people. And they know these people. They’ve worked at the farms for 15 years.” Senior administration officials have had discussions with stakeholders as they quietly try to find a durable compromise on the fate of migrant workers, floating various new ways of granting them legal status, multiple sources told CNN. But it’s unclear what, if any, solution they can reach without Congress, according to experts. “President Trump is a tireless advocate for American farmers – they keep our families fed and our country prosperous. He trusts farmers and is committed to ensuring they have the workforce needed to remain successful,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement, maintaining that deporting “dangerous criminals and targeting the sanctuary cities that provide them safe harbor is a top priority for the President.” The focus on migrant workers reveals the delicate balance the Trump administration is wrestling with as it tries to carry out a historic number of deportations and avoid agitating key industries or unsettling a fragile economy. Similarly, the president faces headwinds from immigration hardliners who view additional protections for migrant workers as an unnecessary form of relief. The ambiguity in Trump’s approach has kept both sides of the debate off balance.