In a move that is likely to anger many of his staunchest supporters, President Trump says he is looking to create some kind of “temporary pass” for migrants working on farms — even if they entered the country, as he put it, “incorrectly.” He has talked about such a move previously, though he walked the idea back after receiving strong pushback from immigration restrictionists. 

Mr. Trump on Sunday told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that it was necessary to grant these migrants some kind of reprieve because farmers rely heavily on them. 

“We’re gonna work it so that some kind of a temporary pass where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control as opposed to you walk in and you take everybody away,” Mr. Trump said, insisting that “the criminals,” not farm employees, will be his priority. 

“I do cherish our farmers and when we go into a farm and we take away people that’ve been working there for 15 [or] 20 years who are good, who possibly came in incorrectly, and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do something for farmers where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge,” the president said. “The farmer knows. He’s not gonna hire a murderer.”

Mr. Trump insisted that going after agricultural employees who may be non-citizens here legally, or who are here illegally without work authorization, may still need to stay. Removing those kinds of individuals is equivalent to “destroying a farm because you took all the people away,” Mr. Trump said on Sunday. 

“I’m the strongest immigration guy that has ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that has ever been, and that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work — a certain group of people work,” he added. 

The administration has fallen well behind on its promise to remove one million immigrants from the country by the end of its first year. Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, according to the Wall Street Journal, raged at ICE leadership in May for the lower-than-expected deportation numbers and suggested they begin targeting non-criminals and Home Depot outlets to pick up the pace.

According to the Migration Policy Institute’s estimate from late April, the administration is on track to remove around 500,000 migrants this year. 

The lack of speed in removing non-citizens from the country has led to some anger among MAGA diehards. Some conservatives grew especially incensed when the president first floated the idea of taking a light touch to the agricultural and hospitality industries, allowing migrant employees to stay here in the United States. 

Congressman Thomas Massie — who often spars with the president over issues of spending and foreign policy, but is in support of the deportations — cracked a joke about the president’s reversal when the notion first surfaced earlier this month. 

“Under Trump’s new immigration enforcement policy, if you’re an illegal alien, I guess you just have to switch jobs to a restaurant, hotel, farm, or meat packing plant?” the Kentucky lawmaker wrote on X. 

At a press conference at the time, the president defended his decision to consider less enforcement on farms. “They’re not citizens but they’ve turned out to be great, and we’re gonna have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and take all their people,” he said.

Many Republicans called for the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, to resign from her post after Mr. Trump floated the idea. The New York Times reported that it was Ms. Rollins who was behind the potential policy change, though she later refuted that reporting.