By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
President Donald Trump has sparked new outrage after declaring that undocumented immigrants are “naturally” inclined to perform grueling farm labor — and that people in “inner cities” simply “don’t do that work.” The comment, made Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box, echoes centuries-old racist tropes and comes one year after Trump infamously told Black journalists that immigrants were “taking Black jobs.” “These people do it naturally, naturally,” Trump said, referring to undocumented laborers, primarily of Hispanic descent. “People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’ve tried — we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it.”
He went further, quoting a farmer who claimed that if a worker gets a bad back, “they die,” before adding: “In many ways they’re very, very special people.” The remarks are consistent with Trump’s long record of dehumanizing immigrants while pitting racial groups against each other. During his campaign last year, he told a room full of Black journalists, “Millions and millions of people [immigrants] happen to be taking Black jobs,” later attempting to clean up his statement by saying, “A Black job is anybody that has a job.”
There is no such thing as a “Black job.” Federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, and Black Americans, like all Americans, work across every sector — from agriculture and service industries to tech, finance, and the White House itself. Now back in power, Trump’s administration has resumed mass deportations and expanded third-country agreements, sending immigrants to nations like Rwanda and Eswatini. Meanwhile, ICE raids have ramped up across farms and food processing plants, despite Trump admitting that farmers need the very labor force he’s targeting. “People that you can’t replace very easily,” Trump acknowledged, before asserting he wants to help farmers “keep” migrant workers, while still vowing to expand removals.
Experts warn that Trump’s framing is not only racist but also dangerous. Assigning certain jobs to specific races or ethnicities echoes a legacy of slavery and segregation, and it directly fuels policies that target the most vulnerable. “There is nothing ‘natural’ about being forced into low-wage, dangerous work because of your immigration status,” said one labor rights advocate. “This is exploitation, not admiration.” Critics say the president’s rhetoric is designed to divide — scapegoating immigrants while invoking stereotypes of Black laziness to shore up political support. “This is plantation logic wrapped in a 21st-century soundbite,” one labor leader stated.
And with Trump doubling down on both mass deportations and race-baiting narratives, many fear the administration’s policies will follow the same trajectory as his words. “We’ve heard this before,” said a Black journalist who attended Trump’s NABJ session last year. “And we know exactly where it leads.”
