Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer cautioned on Tuesday that amnesty for illegal immigrants would obliterate the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Concerns of amnesty arose when Trump said during a Thursday speech that his administration was “working on legislation” to help farmers and leisure businesses maintain their illegal immigrant workforce after U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins told him that farmers were struggling with hemorrhaging employees. Spicer said on “The Morning Meeting” that numerous members of the MAGA coalition would draw a line on amnesty. (RELATED: Blue States Try To Keep Illegals’ Medicaid Data Hidden From Trump Admin)
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“Immigration is probably a 90 to 95 MAGA issue. And it may even be higher than that … if there’s one thing that President Trump has been consistent on, aside from tariffs, it’s immigration,” Spicer said. “And I will tell you that any talk of amnesty that results in a path to citizenship would be a hard no for a lot of people that would — I think it would — it would destroy MAGA. There’s one thing that everybody kind of is on board with: it’s secure borders and a reform of our immigration system.”
“So any amnesty discussion that led to that — I think amnesty can take forms in many way[s], like, well hey, we’re not going to punish you, or you’re going to leave and do the — you know, back in the day it was you leave the country for a year, you pay a fine or something like that,” he continued. “That’s one thing. Anybody that was immediately given citizenship — I think you would crater in minutes.”
Rollins asserted at a Tuesday press conference that there would be “no amnesty under any circumstances” for farmer workers.
“Ultimately, the answer on this is automation — also some reform within the current governing structure,” Rollins said. “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.”
A reporter asked Trump about Rollins’ comments during a Tuesday cabinet meeting.
“There’s no amnesty,” the president said. “What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.”
Trump then prompted Rollins to elaborate.
“This morning we talked about protecting the farmers in the farmland,” she said. “But obviously this president’s vision of no amnesty, mass deportation continues — but in a strategic way — and then ensuring that our farmers have the labor that they need.”
“We’ve got to give the farmers the people they need,” Trump added. “But we’re not talking amnesty.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also warned on “The Charlie Kirk Show” Monday that Trump implementing amnesty would be a disastrous mistake for the Republican Party.
“If you want to break our coalition, go and push amnesty,” Kirk said. “That right there would be a complete collapse of everything that we have worked for — everything.”
“This is a red line,” he added. “Amnesty is a red line.”
Trump vowed during his 2024 presidential campaign to conduct mass deportations if reelected. The president signed his “big, beautiful” bill into law on Friday, which substantially increased funding for immigration enforcement.
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