President Trump said he wants to help farmers by allowing farmworkers in the country illegally to temporarily leave the U.S. and return as legal workers.

Trump said at a Cabinet meeting April 10 that his administration will work with farmers to identify workers who should be eligible to come back. Looking at Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Trump said it was very important.

“We have to take care of our farmers, and hotels and various places, where they need the people,” the president said.

“So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people, saying they’re great, they’re working hard,” Trump said. “They’ll go out and they’ll come back as legal workers.”

National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO Michael Marsh said he was encouraged by the president’s remarks, though it’s unclear what the administration’s policy will be.

“If we can find some process to keep our existing workers, that would be pretty good,” he said. “At least it’s something that’s being discussed.”

Farmers and farmworkers may be shy about admitting to violating immigration laws and also hesitant to count on the administration being consistent, Worker and Farm Labor Association CEO Enrique Gastelum said.

Farmworkers also would have to consider how long they would be outside the U.S. and out of work, he said.

“I think there would be severe trepidation with both workers and employers to raise their hands and say, ‘Here I am!’ ” he said.

“There’s going to have to be very strong protections for both,” Gastelum said. “It’s going to have to be very clear about what this looks like.”

The Trump administration is pushing self-deportation as a path to legal re-entry. A federal judge April 10 declined to block requiring illegal immigrants to register with the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. District Judge Trevor Neil McFadden in Washington, D.C., ruled April 10 that the United Farm Workers and other plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the registration drive.

In court documents, the UFW said union members “Anna” and “Gloria,” farmworkers in Oxnard, Calif., were worried about the consequences of registering. McFadden said declarations submitted under pseudonyms didn’t give the government or court a chance to verify the testimony.

Without firmer evidence of potential harm, McFadden said he couldn’t invoke jurisdiction. “The court declines to engage in such acts of personal aggrandizement,” wrote McFadden, a Trump appointee.

Aliens who are 14 and older in the country for longer than 30 days have had to register since World War II. President Trump in January issued an executive order instructing his administration to treat failing to register as an enforcement priority.

Homeland Security came out with new forms, asking aliens when and where they entered the country, what they were doing in the U.S. and whether they had a criminal record.

The new registration requirement went into effect April 11. Failing to register is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in prison.

“We’re going to work with people so if they go out in a nice way and go back to their country, we’re going to work with them right from the beginning on getting them back in legally,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting.

The UFW alleged the government has never required aliens to register to encourage self-deportation. Illegal immigrants face the choice of registering and being deported or not registering and being arrested, according to the complaint.