In a June 29 interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures with host Maria Bartiromo, President Trump indicated the administration is working on a way to allow agricultural and hospitality employers to have a “temporary pass” to avoid negative impacts on their businesses from stepped-up immigration enforcement.

“I don’t back away. What I do have, I cherish our farmers. And when we go to a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 or 20 years, who are good, who possibly came in incorrectly. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to do something for farmers where we can let that farmer sort of be in charge. The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murder. But you know, when you go into a farm and you set somebody working with them for nine years doing this kind of work, which is hard work to do and a lot of people aren’t going to do it, and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away,” Trump said.

Trump continued, “It’s a problem. You know, I’m on both sides of the thing. I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been, and that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work, a certain group of people work. We’re working on it right now. We’re going to work it so that, some kind of a temporary pass, where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away.”

The President’s comments did not indicate an immediate shift in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Border Patrol, or DHS’s enforcement posture, which Border Czar Tom Homan defined as, “The message is clear that we’re going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations – even on farms and hotels but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first.”