U.S. Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX), a member of the House Oversight Committee, appeared on Fox News’ The Big Weekend Show and defended his support for The Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA), a bill which would allow certain undocumented farmworkers already in the U.S. to apply for legal H-2A status, and allow those workers to stay on the job for up to 350 days.
[NOTE: According to 2024 data shown during the show, there are approximately 680,000 undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. agriculture sector, accounting for approximately one-third of the workforce.]
Host Tomi Lahren told Sessions, “Congressman, I appreciate you being on. Listen, it takes guts, and there have been many of your colleagues who have cancelled on us, so I give you a whole lot of credit for joining us today. And I want you to know that I deeply appreciate and respect that you’re willing to do it and explain to our audience about this bill.”
JUST IN: THINGS GOT HEATED ON THE BIG WEEKEND SHOW@PeteSessions defends to @TomiLahren & @Johnny_Joey his support for a Republican-led bill granting temporary legal status to foreign farmworkers. pic.twitter.com/jv5CCkuwwj — The Big Weekend Show (@BigWeekendShow) August 1, 2026
When the congressman was asked, “If this isn’t amnesty, please tell me what I’m misunderstanding,” Sessions replied: “Amnesty is when we give citizenship, and that does not do this.”
[NOTE: House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), who proposed the bill, likewise argues that a temporary non-immigrant visa is not amnesty — and that to conclude so is “ignorant.”]
Sessions, a longstanding member of the Texas Farm Bureau who represents a rural district known for its cattle and dairy operations, added, “We are losing tens of thousands of family-owned businesses not just in Texas but across the country.” He suggested that many are “losing their land” to solar operations or AI data centers.
Sessions also claimed that if nothing is done — including granting temporary status to undocumented farmworkers — then corporate farms “will simply take over America and we will have lost those things that are about family farmers and [having] farming in communities.”
Sessions said if the problem is not resolved, “We will have to import our food, and it is literally to that point,” and characterized the farming crisis as a national security issue. He added, “The cost of doing business is driving people out of business.”
Lahren responded by telling the congressman that she’s from an agricultural state, South Dakota, and said, “with all due respect, I deeply resent” the idea of farmers relying on illegal aliens.
When she asked Sessions what he would say to farmers who are “doing it the right way” and not hiring “illegal aliens” and who find the bill “offensive,” Sessions replied, “you’re the first person I’ve met that’s ever stated that. The bottom line is we have tens of thousands of job openings right now in the state of Texas, we cannot fill them.”
He added, “It is hard work. It’s getting up at 4 o’clock,” to which Lahren replied, “Americans are willing to get up at 4 o’clock, sir.”
The bill faces challenges from more than media personalities like Lahren, and to succeed, Sessions and Thompson will have to win the argument that their resolution doesn’t grant “amnesty,” a political third rail for Republicans. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin recently wrote on social media: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever. We are a nation of laws. If you are illegally present in the United States of America— you will be detained and deported. Period.”