How The Farm Industry Is Complicating Trump's Immigration Crackdown

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, President Trump suggested the agriculture industry might be spared from his immigration crackdown. But Tuesday, Homeland Security officials confirmed there would be no change to enforcement policy — and no workplace safe from potential raids. We look at what this means economically and politically.

This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, immigration policy reporter Ximena Bustillo, and chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley.

This podcast was produced by Bria Suggs and edited by Lexie Schapitl. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Amber. I'm enjoying the last bit of a quiet morning before getting into my costume for the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival. This podcast was recorded at...
0:11.4	108 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but fair season will still be on at a festival near you.
0:22.6	Enjoy the show.
0:27.1	I want to know what her fit is.
0:28.8	I know. I am trying to imagine her covered head to toe in some sort of regalia.
0:34.7	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm
0:39.7	Hima Bustia, and I cover immigration policy. And today on the show, a contradiction for President
0:44.6	Trump. How to fulfill the largest deportation program in American history without impacting a
0:50.2	farming industry that relies on undocumented labor. To help us sort through that is MPR chief
0:55.8	economic correspondent Scott Horsley. Hi, Scott. Hi, great to be with y'all. Yeah, great to have you.
1:00.3	So, Hima, let's start with why we are having this conversation right now. The administration has
1:06.5	really gone back and forth lately on whether the agriculture industry would be spared from this immigration
1:12.1	crackdown. Can you get us up to speed and talk us through where we are right now?
1:16.9	So as recently as last week, President Trump took to social media and even spoke with reporters
1:22.5	at the White House saying that he wanted to provide some sort of solution for specifically
1:27.4	the agriculture sector. And at times he's talked provide some sort of solution for specifically the agriculture sector.
1:29.1	And at times he's talked about hospitality, like hotels, for example, to be able to spare their
1:34.2	workers or protect their workers or give them access to a workforce so that the supply chains
1:39.2	won't crumble if all those workers were to leave or disappear. Now, this is not necessarily a new statement.
1:47.2	He has made similar claims of promise of providing a carve out for the sector before.
1:54.2	These statements also came a day after the agriculture industry saw probably what has been
2:00.7	described to me as some of the biggest
	...

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