Trump in a dilemma over illegal immigrants

US President-Elect Donald Trump has been the most emphatic about his policy of deporting illegal immigrants from the country. It is a policy that is the favourite of many of the Republican faithful.

But here comes the hitch. American farmers are now asking Trump not to deport illegal immigrants who are working on the farms. It is a rare confession from the farm lobby leaders that emptying the country of illegal immigrants would disrupt the supply chain, of taking the produce of the farm to the consumer’s table.

It is a well-known fact that one of the most faithful Trump voters are the farmers. So, Trump is in a dilemma, caught between his policy and promise of deporting illegal immigrants, and the obligation not to make things difficult for the farmers. It is being admitted by the American farm lobby leaders that many young Americans are either unable or unwilling to work on the farms.

The Trump camp has now modified its illegal immigrant deportation rhetoric to say that it is only those illegal immigrants with a criminal record who would be deported. This could mean that Trump will have to spare a large number of illegal immigrants, let them stay on in the country, and even let them bring their families. This outcome would undermine a strong policy pillar of Trump.

The economic compulsions behind the farmers hiring illegal immigrants is interesting. First, there is the shortage of farm hands. Second, the farmers would have to pay less wages to the illegal immigrant workers compared to their fellow-citizens. Agriculture has a small role in the overall American economy. It contributes 5.6 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), amounting to $.1.5 trillion. It is estimated that half of the 2 million farm hands is that of illegal immigrants.

There is a legal provision for bringing in farm labour with the H-2A visa by showing that the work done by the immigrant labour is not available in the country. But once having let them in, it will be difficult to throw them out because the farm work needs to be done. There are 178,000 H-2A visa-holders in America, and they form only 20 per cent of the total American farmhands.

The uncomfortable reality of illegal immigrants is more complicated that Trump would like it to be. In his first administration, Trump avoided targeting immigrant labour on the farmers though there were raids at the farm sites and the meat packaging places. Congressman John Duarte, a fourth generation farmer in California’s Central Valley, said that farms depended on illegal immigrants, and that small towns would collapse if the immigrants are deported.

He wanted a pledge from the Trump administration that the government would not touch immigrant labour with no criminal record for five years and more. “I would like to hear more clearly expressed that these families will not be targeted.”

President-elect Trump and his aides have been modifying their rhetoric. Trump does not make clear but he is not against immigrants per se. One assumes that he is not against legal immigrants and that his worry is that of illegal immigrants. But his sweeping rhetoric seems to be targeting immigrants per se.

So, there is need for clarification on the part of Trump aides if not Trump himself that he understands the economic imperatives of immigration in America. There is always the reminder that his third wife, Melania Trump, is a Slovenian model who came to the United States. It is possible that at the back of his mind, Trump is aware of the difference between legal and illegal migrant. The farm lobbies are now presenting him with the undeniable need of the immigrant farm labour, and illegal immigrants at that.