Trump's agriculture head expects '34M able-bodied on Medicaid' to do farm work

[LetMyPeopleVote]

These people are nuts

This is how far out of touch these people are ....

Trump's agriculture head expects '34M able-bodied on Medicaid' to do farm work www.rawstory.com/brooke-rolli...

— 🦋❄️🍁Baron🍁❄️🦋 (@baron333.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T15:25:37.619Z

https://www.rawstory.com/brooke-rollins-medicaid-farm-workers/

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins argued that 34 million "able-bodied adults" who are at risk of losing their Medicaid benefits should be expected to take the jobs of migrants on farms.

During a Tuesday press conference, Rollins was asked about President Donald Trump's pledge to give farmers a "pass" when it came to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

"There will be no amnesty," Rollins insisted. "The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation, which again, with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says that "able bodied" Medicaid recipients will replace the farmworkers

Link to tweet

[doc03]

2. How does someone on Medicaid in Ohio pick

vegetables in California?

[obamanut2012]

3. Concentration camps

They won't live in OH anymore.

[GoodRaisin]

11. Right. Build private prisons near farming communities. Send prisoners there

for slave labor to pick crops.

[Hekate]

5. They become migrant farmworkers with no homes to return to -- like Dust Bowl Okies

[synni]

7. People in California would work in California

People in the Midwest would work in the Midwest.

That's not the problem here.

The problem is that people applying for disability are on Medicaid CANNOT work, yet they'll be expected to.

[newdeal2]

8. Oh it very much is a problem that can't be dismissed

Are they going to uproot their lives and move, even within the same state? If not, what if they don’t have transportation to these fields?

There’s so much to think about, but the idiots in charge have no clue.

[valleyrogue]

14. I think they are going after non-disabled single adults under 65 with no dependents.

Until ACA, single adults with no health issues could not get Medicaid..

It is a backdoor attempt to undermine the ACA, which expanded Medicaid for those people.

From what I see, anybody who is disabled, and especially over 65, will not be subject to work requirements.

[Iris]

4. Good luck with that. Will they compete with Kennedy to get people with depression and adhd hell

He wants in his fresh air rehab camps?

[Hekate]

6. Damn them to well never mind 🤬 Where does she get those figures? Does it include infants?

This thinking is beyond me

[WarGamer]

9. there are only TWO million farm workers TOTAL.

[Hekate]

10. That woman behind her looks like Sarah Huckabee Sanders ?

[Jack Valentino]

12. I'm already DOING "farm work" at my own house!! Won't be doing it elsewhere, sorry.

And there AREN'T "34 million" able-bodied adults on Medicaid who don't ALREADY have jobs....

or would this be an admission by a Trump cabinet officer that
they intend to COMPLETELY destroy Medicaid ??

[valleyrogue]

13. LOL!!!!!!!

The lazy shits at the top of the economic heap should have their Trump tax breaks expire.

[Hotler]

15. Your mon and dad to the fields first. Show us how it's done, set an example. nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Maddow Blog-Agriculture secretary suggests Medicaid recipients can replace immigrants as farmworkers

If the Trump administration is counting on Americans on Medicaid replacing immigrants on farms, officials should probably start working on a Plan B.

Agriculture secretary suggests Medicaid recipients can replace immigrants as farmworkers.
If the Trump administration is counting on Americans on Medicaid replacing immigrants on farms, officials should probably start working on a Plan B.
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— hateGOP (@hategop.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T21:36:08.484Z

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/agriculture-secretary-suggests-medicaid-recipients-can-replace-immigra-rcna217572

Soon after, Team Trump reversed course, and then reversed course yet again. As recently as last week, the president talked about developing a temporary pass for immigrants who work on farms, which was the opposite of what his “border czar” said a week earlier.

This week, as Reuters reported, the moving target moved again:

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Tuesday that there will be ‘no amnesty’ for agricultural workers from the Trump administration’s efforts to deport all immigrants in the country illegally. The farm sector has warned that mass deportation of farm workers would disrupt the U.S. food supply.

To be sure, the Cabinet secretary’s comments were newsworthy, though if recent history is any guide, a prominent White House official, including possibly Donald Trump himself, will contradict Rollins very soon.

But of particular interest was something else the agriculture secretary said.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lthhwchvtw2h

Link to tweet

“I can’t emphasize this enough,” Rollins said. “There will be no amnesty; the mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way; and we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do fairly quickly.”

In other words, as the agriculture secretary sees it, there’s no need for concern about farmers losing out on immigrant labor because those workers can be replaced thanks to “automation” and Medicaid beneficiaries......

But what I find myself stuck on is Rollins’ quote in the context of the Republicans’ domestic policy megabill. GOP policymakers approved sweeping and unprecedented cuts to Medicaid, arguing that Americans who lose coverage can simply get jobs that offer health insurance.

It’s against this backdrop that the secretary of agriculture suggested that Medicaid beneficiaries — whose coverage is at risk — can replace immigrants as farmworkers, brushing past the inconvenient fact that farmworkers tend not to get health care coverage.

All of which is to say, if the administration is counting on Americans on Medicaid replacing immigrants on farms, officials should probably start working on a Plan B.