Mass deportations to escalate as Trump vows 'there will be no amnesty' for migrants
His clarification comes a week after he floated providing migrant workers with amnesty for certain industries that rely on immigrant labor.
'There's no amnesty,' Trump said. 'What we're doing is we're getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.'
Agriculture businesses have warned the White House of potential impacts they could face should they lose migrant workers, prompting Trump to reconsider deporting them.
But on Tuesday administration officials sung from the same playbook.
'There will be no amnesty, the mass deportations continue but in a strategic way,' Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday at a press conference. 'Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure.'
'And then also, when you think about, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America,' she added.
The last major mass amnesty in the United States occurred in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law, granting legal status to approximately 2.7 million undocumented immigrants
MAGA-aligned supporters of the president were quick to question his initial suggestion of an amnesty policy, fretting that an influx of new citizens would large states like California into reliably Democratic turf.
However, Trump's reversal was celebrated on the right.
'I am a hard no on any amnesty,' Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine wrote on Tuesday. 'Deport them all.'
Conservative pundit Charlie Kirk wrote: 'Yesterday, the internal D.C. Amnesty push got smoked out. Already, everybody is saying that amnesty is dead, a total nonstarter, won't happen. That's good.'
The announcement comes as the White House's deportation push continues full steam ahead trying to remove the over 10 million migrants estimated to have illegally entered the country under President Joe Biden.
Last month, Trump floated the idea of special treatment for migrant service workers during an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.
'I'm the strongest immigration guy that there's ever been, but I'm also the strongest farmer guy that there's ever been, and that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work, a certain group of people work,' the president said then.
'We're working on it right now. We're going to work it so that, some kind of a temporary pass, where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.'
The Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Post the administration has carried out 239,000 deportations since inauguration.
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