President Donald Trump’s naming of deportation architect as his chief of staff unleashed anger, fear and astonishment among leaders of industries that depend on immigrant labor.

Industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor decried President Donald Trump’s promotion of his chief architect of deportations on Friday, just days after millions of Americans signaled anger about such policies.

The elevation of Stephen Miller to chief of staff, starting Monday, left some leaders of groups representing the agriculture and construction sectors gobsmacked.

“When I got a text message, ‘Hey, have you heard about Stephen Miller?,’ my first thought was: Thank goodness he was let go,” said Chris Herr, president of PennAg Industries Association, which represents farmers and pork and poultry producers. Many of his members helped propel Trump to victory in 2024 but have soured on the president, as some farmers reel from the loss of workers to immigration enforcement, he said.

“The wild card now is what is the president going to do?” Herr said. “Is he going to be engaged, or is the Stephen Miller policy going to rule the day?”

Last month, more than 40 farmers and agricultural industry groups wrote to Trump and congressional leaders, warning that the immigration crackdown was hitting the nation’s food supply, hurting farmers and risking higher grocery prices. The letter marked a strategy shift for an industry that had been reluctant to publicly criticize the immigration raids, preferring to lobby the administration behind the scenes. About 66 percent of the country’s farmworkers are foreign-born.

“Time will tell if Stephen Miller continues to wreck the economy, destroy families, tarnish the Republican political coalition and obliterate Trump’s legacy,” said Rebecca Shi, chief executive of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a bipartisan group that lobbies for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, which organized the letter.

The Washington Post