Despite his typically hardline stance on immigration, US President Donald Trump on Thursday signalled a potential shift—suggesting some undocumented immigrants may be allowed to remain in the US to prevent labour shortages in critical sectors like agriculture and hospitality.Speaking at a White House event, Trump said an executive order is being considered to allow certain undocumented immigrants to stay in the country, especially those working for American farmers.“Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers,” Trump said.“They’ve worked for them for 20 years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. We’re going to have to do something about that,” he added.Trump indicated the possible executive action would also impact the hotel sector: “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have maybe what they’re supposed to have.”“We’re going to have an order on that pretty soon. We can’t do that to our farmers,” US President said.He did not specify what the order would contain or when it might be issued. Farm industry leaders have long urged the administration to shield agriculture from mass deportations, warning that such policies could severely disrupt the nation’s food supply chain, which relies heavily on immigrant labour.According to the US Departments of Labour and Agriculture, nearly half of America’s estimated 2 million farm workers—and many in the dairy and meatpacking industries—lack legal status.“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Changes are coming!”The US president’s remarks come amid nationwide protests against immigration raids.Demonstrators have criticised the targeting of undocumented immigrants without criminal records, especially those detained at their workplaces. Protests intensified last week following enforcement actions in Los Angeles.On Thursday, Trump acknowledged the broader economic consequences of strict immigration enforcement, including within the hotel industry—an area connected to his own business interests.
