SOME ON Trump agriculture panel back legal path for unauthorized workers.
Donald Trump’s agriculture advisory committee includes members who have advocated for comprehensive immigration changes that would give unauthorized workers a path to legal status, a position that runs counter to Trump’s call for the deportation of illegal aliens.
Immigrant labor is a bedrock of the agriculture industry in the United States, many members of the newly formed committee have argued, and a shortage in the already scant agriculture labor pool would raise consumer prices.
The 64-person committee will meet regularly, according to the campaign, and advise the GOP presidential nominee on food-production issues. The agriculture industry is at the center of the debate over immigration policy and depends heavily on Latin American alien labor to meet production demands.
The committee includes several high-profile politicians and governors, including Govs. Terry Branstad of Iowa, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota. Former governors and presidential candidates Rick Perry of Texas and Jim Gilmore of Virginia are also on the committee.
Several current and former executives for large food companies are also on the list. That group includes Bob Goodale, the former chief executive of Harris Teeter, and Fair Oaks Farms dairy chief executive Mike McCloskey.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also was named to the committee.
“The members of my agricultural advisory committee represent the best that America can offer to help serve agricultural communities,” Trump said in a statement. “Many of these officials have been elected by their communities to solve the issues that impact our rural areas every day.”
But several of those listed appear opposed to Trump’s calls for mass deportation and strongly supported the comprehensive immigration-overhaul package passed by the Senate in 2013. Trump has blasted the bill, which stalled in the House, and has characterized it as detrimental to American workers.
“When politicians talk about ‘immigration reform’ they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders,” Trump’s website says about the bill. “The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties.”
Committee member Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers trade group, has advocated for passing comprehensive immigration reform, calling it crucial to addressing a labor shortage in the agriculture industry.
Mike McCloskey, who worked on immigration issues with the National Milk Producers Federation, has said that cracking down on immigrant labor would hurt the industry. The group has taken a strong position in favor of immigration that would help sustain the immigrant labor pool, warning that cutting workers from that pool would hurt American consumers.
Also on the committee are Chuck Conner, the chief executive of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and Steve Foglesong, a former president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The farmers’ council has advocated giving illegal immigrants who work in the agriculture industry permanent legal status. The cattlemen’s association has promoted strengthening border security but also giving illegal workers path to a legal status.
Trump’s calls to deport millions of illegal workers in the United States have been central to his candidacy, which he has framed as a necessary step to protect national security.
Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants have riled Hispanic voters and activists, who have accused him of bigotry. In a foreign-policy address Monday in Ohio, Trump spoke at length about immigration but focused on his plan to limit immigration from countries in the Middle East, an extension of his proposal to ban temporarily Muslims from entering the United States. Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.