(Bloomberg) -- Brooke Rollins, Donald Trump’s nominee for agriculture secretary, supports the president’s plan of “a mass deportation at a scale that matters,” a move that could hurt US farmers who are heavily reliant on foreign labor.
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“That is my commitment, is to help President Trump deploy his agenda in an effective way while at the same time defending, if confirmed Secretary of Agriculture, our farmers and ranchers across this country,” Rollins said at her confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Trump has promised the biggest deportations in US history. That could increase labor costs for farmers, who rely heavily on both documented and undocumented immigrant workers, and inflate food prices for consumers. More than 40% of US crop farmworkers were undocumented from 2020 to 2022, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Rollins said she knows her job, if confirmed, will be to ensure that the president understands what deportations mean to the agriculture community.
“I believe sincerely that he will execute his agenda that he has promised the American people, but that will never forget our ag community in so doing,” she said.
Rollins also said she will work with the secretary of labor to “reform and perhaps modernize” the H-2A visa for temporary farmworkers. Agricultural trade groups have pushed for an expansion of the program, which US farmers have become increasingly reliant on in recent years.
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