Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Says There Will Be 'No Amnesty' For Undocumented Farm Workers

On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was asked if the Trump administration would grant amnesty to undocumented farm workers.

Transcript

00:00Okay. Thank you, Secretary Rollins. Mary Margaret with The Daily Wire.

00:03Two questions, if that's okay.

00:05First of all, I'm seeing on this map that there's a lot of Chinese-owned farmland in California.

00:10Are you looking into the severity of that and what those consequences are?

00:14And then, number two, the president has expressed concerns about how mass deportations would affect the farm industry.

00:21Do you have concerns on this front?

00:23And are you hearing about some of these top conservatives saying that there's a push for amnesty for this workforce?

00:28Well, thank you for those questions.

00:29The first thing I'll say on California, and I'd love for anyone else to join me if they have thoughts on that,

00:34is this, that a lot of people said, well, look at the red states are the ones leading the way.

00:39The red states are the ones that are banning the Chinese-owned farmland, and this is true.

00:44But I have to believe that even the Democrat governors and even the blue states

00:48realize what a massive threat this is to national security and how important it is.

00:54So we plan to work with everyone, no matter which party, no matter which side of the aisle they're from,

00:59to ensure that the people of this country and our agriculture farmland is protected.

01:04The second question, I appreciate you bringing that up, there's been a lot of noise in the last few days

01:08and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor.

01:13The first thing I'll say is the president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty,

01:17and I think that's very, very important.

01:20I and the rest of our cabinet certainly support that, effectuate that, and make sure that happens every single day.

01:26The second thing, to your question about mass deportations, the president and I have spoken about that once or twice,

01:32and he has always been of the mindset that at the end of the day, the promise to America

01:37to ensure that we have a 100 percent American workforce stands,

01:41but we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation, so as not to compromise our food supply.

01:49Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure,

01:54and then also when you think about, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program.

02:00There are plenty of workers in America, but we just have to make sure we're not compromising today,

02:06especially in the context of everything we're thinking about right now, so no amnesty under any circumstances.

02:12Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation

02:18and toward a 100 percent American workforce, and ultimately, it's the wonderful members of Congress behind me

02:24who are taking this on, on the fixing the current immigration system, so thank you so much.