President Trump suggested undocumented farmworkers will have to self-deport and apply for re-entry, a process fraught with risks, according to farm and farmworker advocates.

An estimated 42% of hired U.S. farmworkers are in the country illegally, according to the USDA. Trump said at a Cabinet meeting April 10 that he wanted farmers to have their labor, but only after the workers temporarily left the country.

“They’ll go out. They’re going to come back as legal workers. OK?” Trump said, looking at Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “I think it’s very important to do.”

The comments were the closest Trump has come to saying his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration will make allowances for agriculture. A formal plan has not been released.

Kennewick, Wash.-based farm labor consultant Erik Nicholson, a former United Farm Workers national vice president, said he was encouraged Trump talked about legalizing farmworkers, but the suggestion people will have to exit the country to qualify was troubling.

Undocumented farmworkers may have houses and children in schools, but no longer have ties to Mexico, he said.

“Many of the farmworkers have not been back to Mexico for decades. They have nothing there,” Nicholson said. “Literally, where would they go? What would they do?”

The USDA Economic Research Service reported in January that the U.S. agricultural workforce was aging and settled down. While 83% work close to home, only 4% are migrant farmworkers who follow the crops, according to the report.

The logistics of requiring farmworkers to temporarily leave the country would be difficult, National Council of Agricultural Employers CEO Michael Marsh said.

Farmers would be without the worker, and the worker would be without a job. Both would wonder when the worker could come back, he said.

“I think self-deportation is challenging. Where do you go home to?” Marsh said. “I’m excited about the possibilities, but we need to see the details.”

Trump’s remarks came on the same day a federal judge declined to block Homeland Security from requiring illegal immigrants to register and carry registration papers. The requirement went into effect April 11.

Additionally, the IRS has announced that it will share tax information about undocumented workers with immigration officials.

Homeland Security director Kristi Noem said illegal immigrants should self-deport to give themselves a chance at being allowed back into the U.S.

For several years, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. House members have promoted the Farm Workforce Modernization Act as the path to legalizing undocumented farmworkers.

The legislation proposes that undocumented farmworkers without criminal records be allowed to become “certified agricultural workers” and eventually a “lawful permanent resident.” Their spouses and children would also gain legal status.

Applicants would pay a $1,000 penalty, but would not have to leave the country and could continue working while their application was being processed.

The bill also proposed requiring farmers to verify a worker’s immigration status with Homeland Security. The bill passed the House in 2021, but bogged down in the Senate.

Marsh said a bill would be preferable to an executive order that could be changed by the next president. “That’s why Congress needs to do its doggone job,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said at a rally in March in Washington, D,C., that he was hopeful Congress will pass the act this year. In the past, some federal lawmakers have been reluctant to support the bill because illegal immigrants were pouring across the southern Border, he said. “That excuse no longer exists.”

Newhouse said in a statement April 16 he looks forward to working with the Trump administration.

It’s hard to react to Trump’s remarks without a firmer plan, said Ben Tindall, executive director of Save Family Farming, a Washington farm advocacy organization. The administration should have made clear months ago what it will do to keep the agricultural workforce intact, he said. “If the plan is unable to do that, leaders need to go back to the drawing board.”