Trump Suggests Migrant Workers Are ‘Naturally’ Suited for Strenuous Farm Labor
During a Tuesday interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, President Donald Trump shifted from discussing his tariff policies to make a controversial claim about migrant farmworkers, suggesting they are inherently suited for physically demanding labor.
Trump said a farmer once told him that migrants don’t suffer from injuries like “bad backs” because “if they get a bad back, they die.” The president used the anecdote to reinforce his broader argument that migrant labor is essential to U.S. agriculture.
“These people do it naturally — naturally,” Trump said, referring to migrant workers. “In many ways, they’re very, very special people.”
Trump acknowledged that his administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement, including deportations of individuals complying with court orders, has strained the farming industry, which heavily relies on migrant labor—much of it Latino and non-white.
“We’re taking care of our farmers. We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump said. “These people, you can’t replace them very easily.”
He then contrasted migrant workers with U.S. residents in urban areas: “People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work. And they’ve tried, we’ve tried, everybody’s tried. They don’t do it.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 40% of agricultural workers are undocumented. Farmers have long reported difficulty in finding enough domestic labor, especially during harvest season.
While Trump’s comments were framed as praise for the labor force, his suggestion that migrants are biologically or culturally predisposed to grueling work echoes outdated and offensive stereotypes. Immigration and labor rights advocates swiftly condemned the remarks as dehumanizing and racially charged.
Migrant labor has historically been a backbone of American agriculture, particularly as economic crises and violence have driven waves of migration from Central and South America. Since Trump’s return to office, however, migrant numbers have declined amid renewed threats of mass deportations.