Ag Secy Brooke Rollins claims '34 million able-bodied on Medicaid' will replace deported migrant laborers

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Trip Gabriel @tripgabriel 4h
The Fresno Bee mocks Ag Secy Brooke Rollins's claim that '34 million able-bodied on Medicaid' will replace deported laborers:

In 2021, the UFW launched a “Take Our Jobs” effort to match unemployed with jobs in ag. Only 11 people responded to the offer."

Crazy talk: A Trump crony says Mexican farmworkers can be replaced by Americans | Opinion By The Fresno Bee Editorial Board - July 9, 2025

Days after President Donald Trump signaled a willingness to allow farmers “to vouch for these people” to keep their undocumented workers, mostly from Mexico, from being deported, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins threw cold water on the thought on Tuesday.

“There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way,” Rollins said at a Tuesday news conference in Washington, D.C. “And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid, we should be able to do fairly quickly.”

Putting Medicaid recipients in charge of picking grapes or milking cows will cripple the country’s $543 billion agricultural industry, of which California accounts for about $59 billion.

In 2010, the UFW launched a “Take Our Jobs” campaign, which offered training to citizens wishing to perform farm labor. They got 35 applications.

“In less than a month, everybody was gone (from the fields). Some of them were gone even before ending one day of work...”

read more: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article310245425.html

Most Adults Subject to Medicaid Work Requirements Are Working
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/different-data-source-but-same-results-most-adults-subject-to-medicaid-work-requirements-are-working-or-face-barriers-to-work/

[wcmagumba]

1. Medicaid recipients are getting these benefits for good reasons...they aren't able bodied workers...

More rump admin BS...waiting for "events"...

[LoisB]

3. Most able-bodied adult recipients of Medicaid WORK already.

[Cha]

5. Yeah, everything Traitors say is a LIE. nt

[LoisB]

6. That is so true.

[Srkdqltr]

2. These people seen to think medicaid is welfare not medical insurance. How dunb can they be? Well of course.

Republicans.

[LoisB]

4. I do believe you are correct

[valleyrogue]

7. It is literally a safety net program that has means-testing for income, unlike Medicare.

That is generally referred to as "welfare." It is like SNAP, Section 8, and so forth..

Yes, Medicaid is medical insurance, but it is a LOAN that has to be repaid once that person on it dies, as in long term nursing home care. That's if any assets are left in the person's estate. That's federal law. Most states also require payback for using it for all kinds of medical expenses for as long as the person is on the program.

[Norrrm]

8. '34 million *unemployed* able-bodied on Medicaid' ???

[John Farmer]

9. There are a lot of able-bodied citizens

who already work in agriculture. The reason they are already on Medicaid is that they're paid such paltry wages that they QUALIFY for Medicaid.