Trump Team: No Immigrants to Provide Essential Work? No Problem! Just Put Medicaid Enrollees to Work in Farming and Food Processing

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC — In a new Washington Post op-ed, senior economic adviser to the 2020 Trump campaign Stephen Moore and economics professor Richard Vedder write, “Trump can’t achieve his economic goals without more immigrants,” implicitly criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A Politico article, “‘Essential isn’t a strong enough word’: Loss of foreign workers begins to bite US economy,” captures the economic toll of the deportation agenda already occurring, noting:

“From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden. That’s because foreign-born workers, or their relatives, have become critical in some labor sectors.

‘Essential isn’t a strong enough word,’ said Matt Teagarden, head of the Kansas Livestock Association. ‘It is some version of an immigrant, maybe not first generation, but second or third generation, that are just critical to that work.'”

Meanwhile, Trump administration anti-immigrant diehards like Stephen Miller and border czar Tom Homan are planning on turbocharging mass deportations via the unprecedented tens of billions in immigration enforcement in the massive budget bill, with Homan stating this week that the administration wants to “arrest 7,000 people every day for the remainder of the administration,” per PBS Newshour.

Now it appears the Trump administration has landed on a “solution” – putting Medicaid enrollees to work in the fields and food processing plants across America.

Yesterday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins suggested replacing deported farm workers with Medicaid enrollees, noting:

“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor. Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure, and then, also, when you think about there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program, there are plenty of workers in America…”

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“The Trump Administration’s not-so brilliant plan: deport immigrant workers and deploy Medicaid enrollees to take their place, since they will now need extra money to pay for their healthcare costs after the budget bill. As usual, cruelty is the point along with a complete disregard for what actually is in the best interest of Americans.”

As a reminder, the mass deportation agenda wouldn’t just affect the bottom line of key American industries, but all Americans. See this new FWD.us report: “Prices for all Americans are set to unnecessarily rise under recent and proposed immigration policies impacting the U.S. labor force,” which assesses that, “Recent and proposed immigration policies will result in American families paying an additional $2,150 for goods and services each year by the end of 2028, or the equivalent of the average American family’s grocery bill for 3 months or their combined electricity and gas bills for the entire year.”