Conservative Leaders Call GOP-Led Amnesty Bill ‘Betrayal’ To Voters

Conservatives argue that Republicans in Congress are betraying American farm workers with this new amnesty bill.

Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania introduced the Securing Agricultural Workforce Act (SAWA) on June 30, which aims to allow illegal aliens working in the agricultural sector to stay in the United States. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, and multiple others criticized the bill, Politico reported Wednesday.

Thompson did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. The White House declined to comment.

“No amnesty!” DeSantis stated in an X post Monday. “Amnesty is NOT what people voted for in 2024!”

“These Republicans just stabbed Trump’s deportation promise in the back with an amnesty farm bill,” Bovino also stated in an X post Tuesday. “They’re only gonna get the message one way. Vote every single one of them out in a massive wave, and replace them with real immigration hawks.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the Western Growers Association (WGA), and over 400 agricultural groups have backed SAWA as of June 30, according to Thompson’s press release. Additionally, SAWA boasts bipartisan support from over 40 co-sponsors.

“There is no greater national security threat than disruptions to our food supply,” Thompson stated in the press release. “The Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026 makes the practical, commonsense reforms required to prevent these disruptions by providing a workforce that meets agriculture’s needs—now and in the future.”

Thompson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, reportedly received over $550,000 from agribusiness lobbies between 2025 and 2026.

“I think the agricultural lobby is very powerful, but it’s a poor excuse to overturn what should be our nation’s immigration policy,” Republican Post Falls Mayor Randy Westlund said, according to Politico. “It’s a betrayal of the base of Republican voters who have no interest in amnesty whatsoever.”

The Immigration Accountability Project (IAP) held a similar sentiment.

“The timing is what’s most surprising,” IAP president Chris Chmielenski told the DCNF. “We’re less than four months from deciding which party controls Congress for the second half of President Trump’s term, and there’s zero appetite for a mass amnesty among Republican voters. The only explanation is that the 48 Republicans who support the bill care more about their Ag donors than their own constituents.”

Chmielenski warned that SAWA would have a “terrible effect” on existing American agricultural workers. “For starters, it expands the H-2A agricultural guest worker program to include year-round jobs in dairy, logging, and more. It also caps annual adjustments to wages paid to guest workers, which will in turn reduce wages for American ag workers.”

The U.S. certified nearly 400,000 visas through the H-2A program in fiscal year 2025.

This wouldn’t be the first time Republicans provided widespread amnesty for foreign agricultural workers. President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which reportedly granted over one million illegal aliens amnesty by 1992.

“We’ve tried this before in 1986, and it was a disaster,” Chmielenski said. “The amnesty program was riddled with fraud, and the inadequate vetting resulted in one of the eventual 9/11 terrorists receiving amnesty.”

The Foundation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) also opposes the bill.

“H.R. 9535, the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act, is nothing less than an amnesty for illegal alien workers that will encourage more illegal immigration,” FAIR government relations director Joe Chatham told the DCNF. “As though that was not bad enough, the legislation would also fundamentally change our H-2A system by expanding the program and incentivizing even more industries to prop up cheap foreign labor instead of creating job opportunities for U.S. citizens and modernizing our workforce. FAIR stands in strong opposition to this bill, and will continue to fight for reforms that put the interests of Americans first.”

Fortunately for SAWA’s opponents, the bill’s fate is still up in the air.

On the one hand, SAWA was introduced after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Labor ruled that dairy farmers can hire H-2A workers, Western Livestock Journal reported June 26.

On the other hand, President Donald Trump told Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese during a press conference Tuesday that he was unaware of SAWA and promised to “take a look at it.”

The House referred SAWA to the House Judiciary Committee on June 30, which chose to exclude the bill from its immigration package, NOTUS reported July 17.

However, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio — who chairs the committee — told NOTUS that he is open to considering visa changes “down the road” after the package is passed.

“I remain confident in my belief that the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026 is the best farm labor solution put forth in years,” Thompson told NOTUS.