Large companies in America are trying to stop Trump’s deportation plans

Many of the largest American companies are quietly lobbying to limit President Donald Trump’s plan to expel millions of immigrants – workers who represent a large part of their workforce. And some involved in the campaign deploy a sentence designed to call on Trump and his business -oriented allies: returns to rich America again.

Business Insider learned the MAWA campaign of nearly two dozen industry lobbyists, business leaders and commercial association leaders, most of whom have discussed their anonymity condition. The message – directed against the officials of the Trump administration, as well as the Republicans at the Congress – is that mass deportations would paralyze the economy, which increases the prices of everything, from grocery store to housing.

“Trump as a businessman understands that if he does not have 200 guys who cut the grass on his golf courses, so they don’t look good, and people will not want to do Playing golf, “explains Cristina Antelo, the founding director at Ferox Strategies, a lobbying company that has the National Retail Federation, Walmart, and the Tobac Giant Reynolds America among its customers. “There is a way to go to Trump and make him realize this. How many companies need to hear before he is like,” shit, I will really paralyze the whole market in American work if I do this “?”

“There is one thing that Trump cares more than keeping his mass deportation promise, and that’s the economy,” said a longtime business lobbyist.

Until now, Trump’s immigration raids have focused mainly on migrants accused of having committed crimes since entering the country. But the prospect of generalized busts in farms and factories has shaken the business world, which is strongly based on migrant workforce in fields such as agriculture, meat flooding and construction. Mawa’s plan is to put pressure on the commercial allies in the inner circle of Trump, rather than the president directly, and to move away from Stephen Miller, the most frank anti-immigration of the administration. “Stephen Miller will never be convinced. Forget that,” said a lobbyist of an eminent professional association. “But Trump can be convinced that he does not screw his other businessmen. Miller is not the only guy to have Trump’s ear.”

Instead, according to several lobbyists, they will seek to influence Brooke Rollins, the choice of Trump to lead the Ministry of Agriculture, and Kristi Noem, its interior security secretary. The two are long -standing business defenders, and Noem has been governor of southern Dakota, which houses industries dependent on migrants such as the transformation of beef and dairy products.

In addition, lobbyists have already started to reach out to the members of the Congress and their staff – both on Capitol Hill and in their districts at home – by phone, zoom and in person. Several lobbyists describe a “shock and admiration” campaign, which will seek to apply “1,000 pressure points” to the members of the GOP congress who understand that immigrants are ready to occupy high -risk and high -risk jobs that are avoided by most Americans. Among those who are targeted are the representative Glenn Thompson de Pennsylvania, who chairs the Chamber’s Agriculture Committee.

Despite Trump’s hard rhetoric on immigration, business lobbyists are convinced that he will reconsider the radical scope of his repression. “There is one thing that Trump cares more than keeping his mass deportation promise, and that’s the economy,” said a longtime business lobbyist. “He will not let hell go on something he controls.”

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For years, one of the main American defenders of pro-immigration policies was the American Chamber of Commerce, which considered migrants as a cheap and flexible source of work. As the largest lobbying group in the country, the Chamber defended policies to extend guest workers’ programs and create paths so that workers acquire legal status.

Over the past decade, when Trump made immigration repression a signature problem, the room has moved away from its advocacy for migrants. But a former chamber official told Bi that the business alliance – and his lobbying mastodon – sought to serve as a moderating force on the issue. He said that the leadership of the Chamber was actively putting pressure on the legislators and Trump officials to avoid measures to apply immigration that could harm large companies. (Neither the room nor the white house responded to a request for comments.)

Managers of two other leading commercial associations say that their organizations are also part of the “quiet caucus” of influential lobbying groups that press Trump allies to help convince the president that mass deportations harm his economic program.

Many corporate lobbyists consider Trump himself as their best ally to reverse his most extreme positions on immigration.

Some of Mawa lobbyists think they can even persuade Trump to support the kind of complete immigration reform he torpedoed during his campaign. Such legislation, they say, could involve the reduction in border security in exchange for the granting of concessions adapted to companies – including a way to citizenship for taxpayers to jobs, and more working visas For seasonal workers and high -tech talents from Europe and Asia.

Whatever the form of measures, lobbyists make their influence on immigration. “There will be negotiations,” explains Dan McFaul, partner of Ballard Partners, a powerful lobbying company with links with Trump and his best advisers. The guiding principle, he says, is the essence of Washington’s policy: “What is the art of the possible?”

Many corporate lobbyists consider Trump himself as their best ally to reverse his most extreme positions on immigration. “He is quite pragmatic about the way he addresses problems at the end of the day,” explains Rich Gold, partner of Holland & Knight, whose lobbying customers range from the National Mining Association to the West Palm Beach government, From Trump’s home to Mar -a -Lago. Lobbyists note, for example, that Trump only took two days – in the middle of a massive outcry by business leaders – to reverse the course and delay a planned price of 25% on Mexico.

“There is no way that Trump has to the end of immigration,” said a lobbyist whose company represents a dozen industries in a wide range of sectors. “He’s noisy, but he’s not stupid.”

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Dave Levinthal is an investigation journalist in Washington, DC. He was a journalist and editor -in -chief at Business Insider until 2022.