President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there would be no amnesty for illegal immigrants working on farms and in the service industries. 

His clarification comes weeks after he floated providing migrant workers with amnesty for certain industries that rely on immigrant labor.  

‘There’s no amnesty,’ Trump said. ‘What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.’

The agriculture sector has alerted the White House about the potential challenges it might face if migrant workers are deported, leading Trump to reassess these deportation plans.

But on Tuesday administration officials sung from the same playbook.

‘Amnesty is not an option; mass deportations will proceed but with a strategic approach,’ stated Brooke Rollins, the Secretary of Agriculture, during a press conference on Tuesday. ‘Ultimately, automation is key, along with some reforms within the existing governing framework.’

‘Moreover, consider this: there are 34 million able-bodied adults enrolled in our Medicaid program. We have an adequate workforce in America,’ she remarked.

The last major mass amnesty in the United States occurred in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law, granting legal status to approximately 2.7 million undocumented immigrants.

‘There’s no amnesty,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program’

An immigrant is detained by ICE agents as he exits an immigration courtroom hearing at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on June 6, 2025 in New York City. Federal agents are arresting immigrants outside of immigration court hearings, as ICE ramps up enforcement

MAGA-aligned supporters of the president were quick to question his initial suggestion of an amnesty policy, fretting that an influx of new citizens would push large states like California into reliably Democratic turf.

However, Trump’s reversal was celebrated on the right.

‘I am a hard no on any amnesty,’ Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine wrote on Tuesday. ‘Deport them all.’   

Conservative pundit Charlie Kirk wrote: ‘Yesterday, the internal D.C. Amnesty push got smoked out. Already, everybody is saying that amnesty is dead, a total nonstarter, won’t happen. That’s good.’

The announcement comes as the White House’s deportation push continues full steam ahead trying to remove the over 10 million migrants estimated to have illegally entered the country under President Joe Biden.

Last month, Trump floated the idea of special treatment for migrant service workers during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.

‘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,’ the president said at the time.

‘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.’

He also raised the possibility via Truth Social, writing: ‘Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.’

‘We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming.’

He further elaborated on these sentiments in a press conference later that same day.

‘Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years,’ he said.

‘They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to 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.’

At the time, Trump vowed there would be ‘an order’ coming soon. 

The Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Post the administration has carried out 239,000 deportations since inauguration. 

On Monday, immigration agents were spotted roaming through downtown LA (pictured). Some of them were riding horses, while others traveled on foot

Agents were seen driving through the streets in armored tanks, stopping people and asking for identification along the way (pictured)

On Monday, Trump ramped up his deportation efforts as heavily-armed ICE agents  stormed a popular park in downtown Los Angeles searching for illegal immigrants.

Mayor Karen Bass blasted the administration’s ‘military operation’ and described the show of force as a ‘political stunt’ meant to ‘terrorize immigrants.’

Immigration agents were seen roaming through MacArthur Park and driving through the streets in armored tanks while some were patrolling on horseback.

‘This morning, I went to MacArthur Park where I saw federal agents, military vehicles and federalized troops – another example of the administration ratcheting up the chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in our American city,’ she said.

‘What I saw today looked like a city under siege and under occupation.’

Bass said children were at summer camp when the ICE agents descended on the park.

‘To have armored vehicles deployed on the streets of our city, to federalize the National Guard, to have the U.S. Marines who are trained to kill abroad, deployed to our city – all of this is outrageous and it is un-American,’ she added.

The mayor emphasized that ‘there are entire sectors of our economy that rely on immigrant workers.’

ICE raids across Los Angeles have driven the migrant workforce into hiding, sparking concerns over sanctuary city’s already rocky economic state

The constant raids across Los Angeles have driven the migrant workforce into hiding, sparking concerns over the sanctuary city’s already rocky economic state.

LA has one of the nation’s largest immigrant workforces, with nearly 38 percent of workers originating outside the US, according to 2023 data.

Estimates from the Public Policy Institute of California suggest than one in 10 workers in the Golden State are undocumented immigrants, while the Migration Policy Institute reports there are roughly 950,000 ‘unauthorized’ residents in LA county.  

Immigration agents arrested more than 1,600 people in LA between June 6 and June 22, Bloomberg reported.