What did Donald Trump do today?
He declared amnesty for millions of undocumented workers, whether or not he knows he did.
Trump has always understood the benefits to American companies of illegally employing undocumented immigrants: he's done it himself many times, including while he was serving as president.
In some sectors, like the hospitality and leisure industry Trump dabbled in, paying undocumented workers under the table is mostly a cost-cutting measure, and a way of making sure that people who can work legally don't ask for too much—something else Trump has experience with. But in other sectors, like agriculture, undocumented migrant workers are absolutely critical to businesses and the food security of the nation itself.
Today, for reasons that remain unclear, Trump suddenly noticed that, and announced that his program of "mass deportations" would not include undocumented immigrants working in agriculture or hospitality.
REPORTER: First, on immigration. What made you change your mind about targeting, in California, farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business?
TRUMP: Well we're not targeting, in fact, if you look today I put out a statement [blog post] today about farmers, uh, farmers are being hurt badly by — you know they have very good workers, they work for them for twenty years, they — they're not citizens, but they turned out to be, you know, great. And we have to do something about that, 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, maybe not. And you know what's going to happen, and what is happening, they get rid of some of the people, cause, you know, you go into a farm, and you look, and — people don't — they've been there for twenty, twenty-five years, and they worked great, and the owner of the farm loves 'em, and everything else, and then — you're supposed to throw them out, and you know what happens? They end up hiring the people, the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.
Via @acyn.bsky.social on Twitter - Trump says he's going to make an exception on deporting farm and hotel workers because farmers and hoteliers are mad that great people are being taken away. Watch for the way he dances around so he doesn't have to take any blame for this.
— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.bsky.social) June 12, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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In other words, Trump is admitting that farmers—and anyone who eats food grown on farms—are being "hurt badly by" Trump's own immigration policies, which do in fact dictate that "you're supposed to throw them out." (He also threw in the industry he personally profits from.)
Trump also apparently believes that "murderers from prisons" are seeking out jobs in the hospitality and agriculture sectors and that American employers are, for some reason, preferentially replacing "great people" with those murderers.
For context, ICE was conducting showy televised raids using helicopters against immigrant farm workers in California yesterday.
Trump promised "an order" this week codifying his statements today. A presidential order allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the country and work legally is called an "amnesty."
Why does this matter?
- Lurching from one policy extreme to another is a pretty good sign that a president has no clue as to what he's doing.
- Admitting that your policy isn't working is less embarrassing than whatever this was.
- There's no reason to think he'll remember this tomorrow.