President Donald Trump “has already started to work with Congress” for funding to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. At his first White House news briefing, Spicer listed immigration reform among four items for immediate congressional action while the administration gives first priority to deportation of undocumented immigrants with a criminal record or who pose a security risk.
“That’s where the priority is going to be and then we’re going to continue to work through the entire number of folks that are here illegally,” said Spicer. “But right now, the clear focus is on that.” By some estimates, more than half of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented. Farm groups are worried about the potential for disruption of the labor pool and the risk of lost production.
Besides the stoop labor of harvesting crops, immigrants provide much of the muscle for dairy and livestock production. Farm groups supported comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 but also support creation of legal status for their undocumented workers.
In a hardnosed speech in Phoenix last September, Trump said, “Anyone who entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” with top priority for removal of criminal aliens. An estimated 11 million people are in the United States without documentation. In the following weeks, a senior adviser, Sam Clovis, said the Trump administration would take agriculture’s needs into account while designing a new immigration system and guestworker program.
Spicer said healthcare, immigration, tax reform and regulatory reform were the top legislative items for the White House.