U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday said President Trump may be open to creating a way for some undocumented immigrant workers to stay in the U.S. and Perdue is already working on a 鈥渂lueprint鈥� of policy guidelines to offer the president.
Refusing to call it a pathway to citizenship, Perdue says he would like to find a solution that would allow workers in the ag industry to remain in the U.S. legally. That鈥檚 despite Trump鈥檚 campaign promises to step up deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump met with farmers this week and heard about the challenges they face keeping laborers for dairies or field work, Perdue says.
鈥淗e understands that there are long-term immigrants, sometimes undocumented immigrant laborers, out here on the farms, many of them that are doing a great job, contributing to the economy of the United States,鈥� Perdue says. 鈥淭hat is not his focus nor will that be my focus.鈥�
Perdue says he鈥檚 hired a labor lawyer to help design the program that can help keep undocumented workers here, but remove criminals, which is what Trump wants. Perdue says he鈥檚 hired an attorney away from the American Farm Bureau.
鈥淚鈥檓 hoping she can provide the president and his administration a blueprint and a program of how we can separate and divide and understand who are the immigrants that are contributing to American society and contributing (to) putting 鈥� that food on the table and the fiber that we need for clothes, 鈥� Perdue says.
The move is a turnaround for both Perdue and Trump, who said during the presidential campaign that he would deport almost all undocumented immigrants.
Many of the most powerful agriculture industry groups have pushed Washington to complete comprehensive reform to the immigration system that would allow for more legal foreign farmworkers. More than 70 percent of farm workers are foreign-born and half of those are in the U.S. illegally, .
More recently, that he would consider immigration reform that would provide a legal pathway for people in the U.S. illegally. He has not made similar remarks publically since taking office.
Perdue said during his Senate confirmation hearings that he supported making it easier for dairy farmers to employ immigrants. Yet in 2006 as governor of Georgia, he instituted a major crackdown on illegal immigration, who couldn鈥檛 find labor.
Daniel M. Kowalski, an attorney and editor of Bender鈥檚 Immigration Bulletin, said he鈥檚 surprised and pleased with the news.
鈥淭his new benefit for ag workers could be an entering wedge of reform, opening up relief for DACA (鈥淒reamer鈥�) kids, their parents, refugees, and more,鈥� Kowalski says. 鈥淚t will take sustained pressure from families and small businesses to convince Trump and Congress that immigrants are a benefit, not a burden.鈥�
If Perdue鈥檚 plan moves forward, Congress may have to pass a bill creating a new visa program or provide tweaks to the existing H-2A and H-2B visas, Kowalski says. Or perhaps the Trump Administration would direct the Department of Homeland Security to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement to exercise prosecutorial discretion to resist deporting all of the people they arrest, he says.
Perdue wouldn鈥檛 offer the specifics of his plan and said it鈥檚 in its early stages.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to describe the heart of the president and my heart regarding how we treat people, some people here who are undocumented who have been working in the United States for a number of years,鈥� Perdue says. 鈥淭hose people are different than the criminal people, illegal criminals preying on the population of the United States of America.鈥�
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