Trump offers concession on immigration

Going back to Donald Trump’s first campaign, it was clear that he had a hardline stance on immigration. If you come into this country illegally, you are gone, period.

Well, Trump just made a significant pivot, and I am just curious if MAGA will support it or not.

Have to go

Just days after taking office, the Trump White House put out a statement regarding immigration.

It stated, “States, such as the Great State of Texas, have asked the Federal Government for protection against invasion during the Biden Administration, but it failed to protect them from millions of illegal aliens entering the United States, invading their communities, and imposing billions of dollars of costs upon State and local governments.”

The administration revealed that teams were hitting the streets right away, looking for hardcore criminals, but eventually, that search would expand to include all illegal immigrants.

Within weeks, those searches expanded to farms and businesses, sending a shockwave through the hospitality and farming industries, which are notorious for hiring illegals.

We need your help

While I think the hospitality industry would do just fine without illegals (I ran several restaurants and hotels with zero illegals during my days in the industry), the farming industry is something else altogether, especially for smaller family farms.

The work is hard, the pay is cheap, and they have problems getting workers, but that still does not make it okay that they are using illegal workers rather than bringing people in legally to help.

Regardless, the industry has reached out to Trump for help, asking for an exemption.

Based on Trump’s most recent interview, it sounds like he is going to give it to them.

The Trump pivot

Trump was on Fox News this weekend, where he made it sound as though this is a foregone conclusion.

He stated, “I cherish our farmers. And when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who were good, who possibly came in incorrectly. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to do something for farmers where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge. The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murderer.”

Trump later added, “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.”

This is a big switch, but it would take away one hit from the Democrats, who always complain specifically about how the farming and hospitality industries are being crushed. I am a realist, and I know there is no way that Trump can remove the nearly 10 million illegals (if not more) that Biden let in. I would get on board with a plan that allowed them to work legally, as long as they paid an additional tax (for life) for entering illegally, and they never had a path to citizenship. That is something I think most people would live with, but more importantly, it would put Dems up against the wall because we know they would never support it.