Trump 'looking at' immigration relief for farm workers after resuming ICE raids on them

"We can't put the farms out of business," Trump said June 20 in discussing his immigration enforcement efforts.
President Donald Trump again is saying he wants to shield farmers from the effects of his crackdown on illegal immigration, just days after his administration reinstated workplace raids on agricultural operations.
"We're looking at doing something where, in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility, because we can't put the farms out of business," Trump told reporters June 20 while traveling to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. "And at the same time we don't want to hurt people that aren't criminals."
The Trump administration has been sending conflicting messages on the issue.
Under Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting widespread raids and arresting and detaining immigrants, many of whom do not have any criminal record.
Trump promised changes to protect migrants in the farming, hotel and leisure industries in a June 12 Truth Social post.
"Our farmers are being hurt badly," Trump said in remarks later that day.
Following those comments, Trump's administration directed immigration officials to largely pause raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and meatpacking plants. But the administration reversed course a few days later and resumed the raids.
Trump has made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second administration, but he has been under pressure from businesses affected by his aggressive enforcement efforts. Brooke Rollins, Trump's Agricultural secretary, has relayed the farming industry's concerns to Trump about losing workers because of the president's mass deportations.
'You have people that have worked on farms for 20 years," Trump said June 20. "It's very hard to go in there and say 'you're coming out.' But we're going to let the farmers take responsibility, they're great people, they'll do it. They know the good and the bad.'
'I never want to hurt our farmers... they keep us happy and healthy and fat," Trump added.
About 42% of farm workers in the United States between 2020 and 2022 lacked legal status, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Reuters

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Chicago Tribune

36 minutes ago

• Chicago Tribune

The Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz for June 21

Summer temperatures are officially here, Chicago. A heat wave is moving across the region this weekend, with potentially record-breaking temperatures and dangerously high humidity. Luckily, the city's pools reopened just in time. For the first time since the pandemic, Chicago's outdoor public pools will be open seven days a week this summer. What else happened this week? Let's jump in. President Donald Trump left the the Group of Seven summit in Canada early as the war between Israel and Iran intensified. The president said he will decide the level of U.S. involvement in the conflict within two weeks. The Federal Reserve also kept its key rate unchanged this week, waiting to see how new tariffs will impact the economy. On Sunday, the man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses was taken into custody following a two-day manhunt. Several prominent Illinois politicians were among the names listed in the alleged shooter's notebooks. Tensions over immigration continued to flare this week. Following news that President Trump was directing federal immigration officials to ramp up deportations in Democratic-run cities and possibly targeting Chicago with a military response similar to Los Angeles, Mayor Brandon Johnson warned that such a move would be challenged in the courts, saying the president should respect the Constitution. And several Illinois Democratic congressmen were denied entry at an ICE facility in suburban Broadview, despite demands to check on the conditions of the detainees held there. In state financing news, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Illinois budget Monday, while Cook County projected a $211 million shortfall for 2026. Funding for Chicago-area transit also remains unresolved in Springfield — as does the question of who will lead the Chicago Transit Authority. The Tribune discovered this week that the mayor didn't conduct a national search for a replacement for Dorval Carter, who left the CTA earlier this year, despite claiming otherwise. As the school year comes to a close, Pedro Martinez's tenure as Chicago Public Schools CEO is over. In his final week as schools chief, Martinez delivered remarks at the City Club about his time leading the district. Summer break often means more large gatherings of young people downtown. In an effort to curb these sometimes violent and chaotic 'teen takeovers,' Chicago City Council narrowly passed an ordinance that would give the police superintendent the power to declare a 'snap curfew' anytime, anywhere. On Wednesday, Mayor Johnson said he would veto the measure and on Friday, followed through on that promise, issuing the first mayoral veto in nearly two decades. Preparations for this year's NASCAR street race have begun, but will the race be held in Chicago again next year? The Tribune reported this week that a tourism commission in Southern California is currently in negotiations to move the race to San Diego. In other news from the world of sports and entertainment, the Chicago Fire offered a detailed look this week at their stadium plans, Cubs legend Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field and the James Beard Awards were announced. Plus, a popular gay bar in Chicago's Northalsted neighborhood could soon have another location at O'Hare International Airport. If the proposal is approved, Sidetrack would be the first LGBTQ+ bar in a U.S. airport. That's all for this week! Here's the Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz from June 15 to 21. Missed last week? You can find it here or check out our past editions of Quotes of the Week. Until next time, stay cool, stay hydrated and be safe out there, Chicago!

CNN

43 minutes ago

• CNN

The kings of Queens: Andrew Cuomo seeks restoration months after Donald Trump's

They are two men from the outer boroughs of New York – both with the Queens accent to prove it, each with his own distinctive rhythm – born of domineering fathers who chose their careers for them and made them righthand men. They revered their fathers but also saw them as not quite ready to do what it took to truly get ahead. One brought his father's real estate empire into Manhattan and turned it into a global brand. The other took his father's political mantle and built a career in both Washington and New York, winning three governor's elections of his own. Both revel in finding weakness and needling those they don't respect. Both can be abrasive, then charming a moment later. Both present themselves as forever underestimated. Both have faced a litany of scandals and been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women in allegations they both deny and dismiss as politically motivated. Both have small circles of ultra-loyalists and much longer lists of enemies who want them to fail. Now, seven months after Donald Trump won a second White House term that he presented as part vindication, part retribution, Andrew Cuomo is seeking his own restoration. Ahead of Tuesday's Democratic primary for New York mayor, Cuomo has centered his bid on the idea that he alone has the stature and experience to fight Trump. Their lives have intersected and crashed into each other for 40 years – over politics and policy, literal questions of life and death during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also personality and self-assurance that each knows better what their parties, and Americans, want. That worries some who have clashed with both. 'Seeing what I see from Washington, DC, which is only focused on retribution and revenge, there are a lot of similarities in certain people running for the mayor of the city of New York, and I don't need those same characteristics to be revealed in the office of the mayor or the city,' said New York Attorney General Tish James, a longtime Cuomo and Trump critic. For decades, they were competing Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloon-sized personalities who made the motions of friendship to get what they really wanted. Trump recorded a video played at Cuomo's bachelor party warning him not to cheat. Nineteen years later, Cuomo was one of the guests watching Trump walk his daughter Ivanka down the aisle at her wedding to Jared Kushner. Over that time, Trump donated a total of $64,000 to Cuomo's campaigns. A few days after Cuomo won his third term as governor in 2018, he flew to Washington to have lunch with Trump, where the president greeted him like an old friend. Before walking out of the Oval Office grabbed Cuomo's arm and said, 'Hey Andrew, can you believe this?' The year that defined them both was 2020. As they faced off over immigration, Covid-19, racial justice protests and federal funding for the state of New York, Cuomo would return to the Oval Office for what would be the first of three in-person meetings, along with dozens of phone calls and quite a few tweets. A dozen aides to Trump and Cuomo revealed new details about those run-ins to CNN. They spoke on condition to anonymity to discuss private meetings. Those details may be the guide for what may be ahead if Cuomo becomes mayor and they inevitably meet again. The meeting started with a warm handshake, with the White House photographer right up close to get the smiles. 'You should sit here,' Trump said, pointing Cuomo to one of the chairs in front of the Resolute Desk, according to one person in the room. That morning before heading to the White House, Cuomo had accused Trump of 'extortion': The president was threatening to revoke 'trusted traveler' status for New York, which allowed for Global Entry speeding travelers through customs, if the governor didn't give the administration access to the state's driver's license database. Immigrants without legal authorization can get licenses in New York. Cuomo didn't want the database to be used for immigration raids, but he also didn't want to lose all the international travel business. In the meeting, Trump held up a sheet with three columns of states, arranged by color. All green were giving Trump all the information he wanted. Green and red were mixed. New York, Trump pointed out, was all red. He shoved the chart across the desk at Cuomo. Trump name-checked a few rich New Yorkers who didn't want to have their access to Global Entry shut down. 'It's good leverage,' he pointed out to Cuomo, according to the person in the room. 'You can do this, but we will sue you,' Cuomo told him. By the end, neither the president nor the governor had conceded anything, and aides to both thought they'd outmaneuvered and cornered the other. Trump slid a small stack of red MAGA hats toward Cuomo at the end, talking about his poll numbers and how great his re-election campaign was going to be. Cuomo glanced at them and did not pick them up. Eventually, the administration produced a memorandum of understanding that did not admit doing anything wrong but did back off the threats. A court reinstated 'trusted traveler' later that year. But within weeks, no one was traveling much at all. Trump was on the phone quickly after the first confirmed coronavirus cases hit New York. He had been yelling at rallies that the virus was a Democratic hoax, but to Cuomo, he was asking what the state needed, what he could do to help. Within days, their daily dueling briefings began. Cuomo liked the attention, the sudden nationalization that made him both a social media hero for locked-down liberals, driving Democratic speculation that he could sub in as the Democratic presidential nominee for a man already showing his age, then-former Vice President Joe Biden. Cuomo and Trump watched each other on TV. They went in front of cameras to respond to mock and undermine each other. Then they got on the phone and blew past whatever had been part of the show to talk about what they were going to do. Trump was giving Cuomo's team access to statisticians and academics trying to figure out what was happening. Cuomo was grateful, often telling aides who were running into problems that he'd walk into his office and call the president directly to get them cleared, enjoying being able to bypass what he'd felt was too many steps in dealing with the previous administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. When Trump toyed with blockading New York City, Cuomo wrote a New York Times op-ed with one reader in mind. Trump called him as soon as he saw it and talk of a blockade stopped. Cuomo felt like he was in the catbird's seat, his aides say, of being in a crisis needing something out of a president he was convinced he knew how to work. 'They both understood why each of them was taking the public approach and it didn't really bother them why the other one was saying what they were saying publicly,' a former state official told CNN. Cuomo and a few aides were back in the Oval Office two weeks later to ask for more help. Each state was being allocated 20,000 tests per day, and Cuomo felt the severity in New York should get their allocation boosted to 40,000. Going in, Cuomo had been amused that he and his aides had to test multiple times before seeing the president themselves. Trump was behind the desk again, Cuomo and aides in chairs in front. According to three people in the room, the president kept the conversation loose, armed again with charts and a marker to make points. Trump asked Cuomo if he'd seen the 'Bikers for Trump' rally that had just happened. He asked how Cuomo's mother was doing. Cuomo sat back, letting him go on before interjecting to bring him back to a specific ask. He even brought the president a bottle of New York-branded hand sanitizer. 'They always did that charm dance with each other because they were Queens brawlers,' one Cuomo aide at the time told CNN. Trump asked Cuomo how 'our hospitals' back in Queens were doing. Eventually he agreed to the extra tests, but not extra disaster aid Cuomo wanted too. Trump offered to put Cuomo on the phone with the doctor who'd treated then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had just recovered from coronavirus. On the way out, Cuomo and his retinue ran into Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to two people who saw the interaction. Cuomo asked about the disaster relief money, and when he heard it wasn't resolved, brought them back into the Oval Office. Trump, already back in his private dining room watching TV, came back in and agreed to the request. As they left, he gave Cuomo a few extra rapid testing machines they had in the White House for his own use. Cuomo aides convinced themselves that they were being strung along so that Trump would cajole Cuomo to join his own briefing that evening. Trump aides say that was never a possibility. They each did their own briefings after, Cuomo when he returned to New York. Two days after George Floyd was killed, Cuomo was back in the Oval Office. He wanted to get Trump thinking that more federal money for infrastructure projects could 'supercharge' the projects while giving Trump potential accomplishments for an ongoing re-election campaign that appealed to him personally and politically. The meeting did not go well – Trump came in incensed that the New York attorney general had subpoenaed his children and was convinced that Cuomo had orchestrated it, according to top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa, who detailed the encounter in her book, 'What's Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis.' But afterward, Cuomo went a few blocks over to the National Press Club in Washington and said it was a 'good conversation.' 'The president is from New York, so he has a context for all these things we're talking about,' Cuomo said. The money never arrived. They talked more when the summer of protests sparked by Floyd's murder began to grow violent in New York. Though things were never as intense there as in other parts of the country, Cuomo responded with a stronger hand than his rival, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, pushing de Blasio to establish a curfew, moving to send in state police and openly considering sending in the National Guard himself. A few weeks later, Trump was dangling the threat to send troops into more cities. Cuomo called him and told him not to. Trump told him to stop criticizing him publicly. Cuomo backed off. The troops never came. The relationship dissolved again later that summer, when Trump was furious about Cuomo's recorded speech to the Democratic National Convention. Far from the famous rallying keynote Mario Cuomo delivered against Ronald Reagan in 1984, it was still a call to action, and a call to kick out 'a dysfunctional and incompetent' Trump. The president spent the night tweeting furiously about 'the horrible governor.' Since Trump moved troops into Los Angeles two weeks ago to quell protests over immigration enforcement, Cuomo has repeatedly said that Trump didn't do that when he was governor and wouldn't do it if he were mayor. Trump aides question both claims, but Cuomo does have the 2020 parallel to point to. Trump has made clear he wants the operations in Los Angeles to be the first in a series of moves into blue cities. Cuomo has spent the closing weeks of his campaign leaning heavily into anti-Trump talk and warning about repeats of Los Angeles in TV ads, in mailed materials and in comments on the trail. Last month, when word leaked that the Department of Justice was stepping up its investigation into him for possible perjury in congressional testimony over his handling of Covid-19, he linked himself to other Democratic politicians the president has targeted. 'We know Mr. Trump, because this is Trump II. I was there for Trump I,' Cuomo boasted on Thursday at a stop. 'Don't ever forget that we beat Trump once. We're gonna beat him again.' Cuomo's opponents, meanwhile, have said he wouldn't stand up enough, and 'I think New Yorkers are hungry for a different kind of politics,' progressive challenger Zohran Mamdani began one campaign video standing outside of Trump Tower, drawing comparisons between the two of them. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking reelection as an independent, and others say Cuomo is only running for to line himself up for Trump's current job in 2028. Cuomo, in turns, says his rivals aren't tough enough and recently suggested Trump would cut through Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, 'like a hot knife through butter.' He argues repeatedly that his experience is a main reason to elect him. The president was asked in April about Cuomo. Aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed credit for helping New York during the pandemic before offering an apt summary of their relationship. 'I've always gotten along with him,' Trump said. 'We've had our ins and outs a little bit.'

News24

an hour ago

• News24

Chris Roper: African audiences lead the global shift to social news

The 2025 Reuters Digital News Report reveals that news media in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa are among the world's most trusted, even as social media and video platforms overtake traditional outlets, writes Chris Roper. Revelations of the 2025 The Reuters Digital News Report (DNR), now in its 14th iteration, include how audiences are moving towards social media and video platforms as a source of news, and the way this is contributing to the already eroding influence of traditional news organisations and 'supercharging a fragmented alternative media environment containing an array of podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokkers. At the same time, chatbots powered by generative AI are emerging as a new way to access information, especially with people under 35, raising concerns about a potential loss of search referral traffic to publisher websites and apps.' There are still opportunities for news organisations to build different relationships with their readers, though, and arguably, this is especially so for African news publishers. Reliable content When describing how this applies to news globally, the authors write, 'Despite this, audiences remain mostly sceptical about news they find on both social and AI platforms, partly driven by concerns about access to reliable content. Online influencers and politicians are seen as the biggest threats in this regard, while the majority expect generative AI to make the news cheaper to make, but less accurate and less trustworthy. These concerns could offer opportunities for publishers, as audiences say they still look to news brands when checking for reliable information, ahead of sources such as politicians, influencers and trusted personal contacts.' Brokering a relationship that rests on trust is, of course, not an easy thing. Potentially, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are well placed to do this, given that there still exists a high level of trust in news in those countries. The DNR includes a fourth African country, Morocco, but it is somewhat of an outlier in terms of the survey. Data for Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa are based on surveys that are representative of younger, English-speaking online news users only, rather than their respective national populations, which makes it difficult to draw comparisons with Morocco, where the survey was targeted at a more heterogeneous group. The report's authors advise caution when directly comparing data points between these African markets and countries with very high internet penetration where the online sample is more broadly representative of the national population. Bearing that caveat in mind, several instructive comparisons can still be made. High levels of trust in Nigeria and Kenya Nigeria and Kenya stand out with significantly high levels of overall trust in news. Nigeria recorded the highest overall trust among all 48 markets surveyed at 68% (ranking 1st), and Kenya was close behind at 65% (ranking 3rd). Trust in news in Nigeria has increased since 2021. South Africa also reported a relatively high trust level at 55% (ranking 5th overall), well above the global average of 40%. There is something of a red flag for South Africa, which has experienced a six percentage-point drop in trust since 2022 (from 61%), with almost all news brands seeing a decline. Morocco has one of the lowest levels of trust in news among the surveyed countries, at just 28% (ranking 42nd), significantly lower than its African counterparts. The real opportunity for media in Africa, perhaps, comes from this category of trust in media, and anxiety about what is real and what is false online. A significant majority of all four countries express high concern about distinguishing true from false news information online, with the African region showing the highest concern globally (73%). Both Kenya and Nigeria report 73% concern, and South Africa has 'high concern about information integrity' at 67%. Morocco's concern is at 54%. This contrasts with Western Europe, which has the lowest levels of concern (46%). Online influencers and personalities are perceived as a major threat for false or misleading information across all markets (47% global average). This concern is particularly high in Kenya (59%), Nigeria (58%), and South Africa (56%, and specifically for TikTok). Morocco also sees online influencers/personalities (52%) as the biggest threat, followed by national politicians (30%). All four countries exhibit a strong reliance on digital platforms and social media for news, which the report reveals is a trend common in the Global South. Social media is a primary source, and the report points out that this is the first year that social media has displaced television as the top way Americans get news, with the proportion of news consumers accessing news via social media and video networks in the United States (54%) overtaking both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%) for the first time. This is going to be a significant strategic issue for traditional news publishers in Africa. How to take advantage of move to social media Instead of succumbing to the existential threat of the ever-accelerating move towards social media, how do they take advantage? The social media landscape is a fragmented one, with the report revealing that six online networks now reach more than 10% weekly with news content, compared to just two a decade ago, but African countries frequently rank among the top global users of social media platforms for news consumption, placing them in what we could term a social-first category alongside countries in Latin America and parts of Asia. This is particularly the case for video-centric platforms like YouTube and TikTok. African countries show some of the highest weekly usage of YouTube for news. More than half of the sampled populations in Kenya (54%, up five percentage points), Morocco (49%), and Nigeria (49%, up five percentage points) reported using YouTube for news, with South Africa also showing significant usage at 42%, although this is down five percentage points since the 2024 DNR. This positions them alongside top Asian countries, such as India (55%) and Thailand (55%), and significantly above the global average of 30%. TikTok and Facebook still major players TikTok is growing rapidly as a network for news consumption. Kenya is at 38%, South Africa at 33%, Nigeria at 28%, and Morocco at 24%, which is notably higher than the average use in the United States (12%) and Europe (11%), and the global average of 16%. Facebook is still a major player when it comes to news consumption. Nigeria leads with 65% weekly news usage, followed by Kenya (52%), South Africa (50%), and Morocco (47%). The global average is 36%. WhatsApp is also widely used for news in Africa, contrasting with the global average of 19%. Nigeria shows 53% weekly news usage, Kenya 46%, South Africa 41%, and Morocco 30%. Instagram's news usage is also considerable for Nigeria at 41%, Morocco at 32%, and Kenya at 26%. In South Africa, Instagram is the lowest of the six social media platforms covered by the report, with only 15% of those surveyed indicating they used it for news, a two percentage-point drop from 2024 and below the global average of 19%. Usage of social media platform X for news in African countries is mixed, with Kenya at 42%, Nigeria at 49% (a nine percentage point increase), Morocco at 11%, and South Africa at 16%. Kenya and Nigeria are way above the global average of 12%. READ | Online hate speech hits Africa, social media firms told to act Amid the decline in consumption of traditional news media, there is some hope in terms of consumption of local news in South Africa. The country stands out with the highest interest in local news (60%) among the surveyed countries, significantly higher than the average interest in local news across 45 markets (32%). This question was not asked for Kenya and Nigeria. Interestingly, audiences in these African countries, as well as in Asia, show notably higher comfort levels with news content produced mostly by AI with some human oversight compared to Europe. South Africa's comfort level is 34%, higher than the USA (19%) and Europe (15%). This might prove to be an opportunity for African news publishers to embark on a transparent implementation of AI into their news flow, one that includes audiences in the process. Instead of a challenge to editorial integrity, this could be a mechanism to build trust with readers. News avoidance A major threat, though, is the high levels of news avoidance. Globally, the DNR authors tell us, 'trust and low engagement in the news are closely connected with 'avoidance', an increasing challenge in a high-choice news environment, where news is often upsetting in different ways. Across markets, four in 10 (40%) say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017 and the joint highest figure we've ever recorded (along with 2024).' News avoidance varies among the four African countries, with Kenya reporting a 50% news avoidance, South Africa 41%, Nigeria 35%, and Morocco 39%. The DNR identifies some key threats to traditional media, such as the continued reliance on social media, video platforms, and online aggregators for news, the pressure on business models, attacks on press freedom, and the emergence of AI platforms and chatbots as new sources of news. It's not all doom and gloom for African news publishers, though. In some cases, they can learn from the rest of the world, but in other cases, they have the opportunity to take advantage of the differences in their own local environments. Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have some of the highest levels of trust in news globally, which can potentially be leveraged to position themselves as reliable sources amid growing scepticism about information on social and AI platforms. - Chris Roper is a deputy CEO at Code for Africa. Note: The Africa launch of the Reuters DNR takes place on Monday, 23 June, (13:00 CAT), hosted by Reuters Institute of Journalism in partnership with Code for Africa. A presentation by lead author Nic Newman will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Ajibola Amzat from the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, Justine Wanda from Fake Woke and Jillian Green from Daily Maverick. Sign up now.