() President Donald Trump has pledged to protect American farmers who rely on migrant workers to operate their farms, but until Thursday, details of how that would work remained limited.

But at a rally in Iowa, Trump said that he would allow the farmers who hire migrants to take charge and allow the migrants working in the agricultural industry to remain in the country. The plan would not create a path to citizenship as some immigration advocates have called for, but would protect them from the possibility of being detained by ICE agents during workplace raids, Trump said.

“If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don’t have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen,” Trump said. “If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way … I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?”

Trump said that by implementing a plan in which farm workers were able to avoid being taken into custody, it would benefit a farming industry that contributed about $223 million to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2023.

Trump said that he doesn’t want to see immigration enforcement efforts that result in farms losing groups of workers. Trump told supporters at Thursday’s event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds that he had heard of migrants who had worked for farms for more than 15 years “get thrown out pretty viciously.”

“We can’t have that,” the president said, adding, “We want the farms to do great.”

The White House and White House Border Czar Tom Homan have declined to provide more specifics about a “temporary pass” for migrants working in the farming and hospitality industries. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment when asked for reaction to Trump’s plan by this week.

The Center for Migration Studies found 86% of workers are foreign-born, and 45% are in the U.S. illegally, often without documentation.

Trump credited Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins with bringing the plight of migrant farm workers to his attention. Trump said, Rollins told him, ‘So we have a little problem. The farmers are losing a lot of people.’

“And we figured it out and we have some stuff being written,” Trump added.

Trump said that the plan would allow migrants to avoid being deported, but that while being allowed to remain in the country and pay taxes, his protection does not provide a path to U.S. citizenship. Yet, while putting the farmers ultimately in charge of the migrants they employ, Trump said he would hold farmers responsible if trouble arose.

“We’ll let the illegals stay, and we’ll throw the farmer the hell out, okay? Get ready, farmer,” Trump said.

Despite providing protection, Teresa Romero, the president of United Farm Workers, which represents more than 10,000 migrant field workers in California, Oregon, Washington and New York, told this week that a more permanent solution is needed.

Romero said that the union has backed the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act , which is designed to reform the H-2A visa program. She said that while farm workers were characterized as essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, that is no longer the case.

Many of the migrant field workers have been at their respective places of employment for 30 or 40 years and are now seeing their children join the workforce, Romero added. But amid threats of ICE raids, she said fear continues to grow among the working migrant population to the point where many fear coming to work. The ones who are showing up often don’t feel valued.

“They feel like they are disposable,” Romero said.