Arkansas Democratic Senate candidate Hallie Shoffner is drawing attention over comments about undocumented agricultural workers after saying farmers would “trade five Americans” for one undocumented immigrant because of how hard they work.
Shoffner, a sixth-generation Arkansas farmer challenging Republican Sen. Tom Cotton in November, made the remarks during a Sept. 9 appearance on the Free Arkansas podcast with host Andy McNeill.
“Every farmer will tell you at one point, we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants, and it’s absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they’re hardworking people,” Shoffner said.
She then delivered the line that quickly became the focus of coverage surrounding the interview.
“They’re some of the best people we know, and honestly, we’d trade five Americans for just one of them because of how hard they work.”
Shoffner continued by questioning why agricultural workers who are in the country illegally do not have a better mechanism for obtaining legal work authorization.
“And why is it that there’s no pathway for them to work here legally when they’re good workers? We pay them well. They spend money here. They have family here,” she said.
WATCH:
Arkansas Democrat US Senate Candidate Hallie Shoffner @hallieshoffner let it slip during a recent interview that she values illegal aliens over American workers.
She shockingly said she would trade 5 Americans for 1 illegal alien!!!!
Shoffner proclaimed her love for… https://t.co/xEPpfvvVjC pic.twitter.com/7RqvizCqXo
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 15, 2026
The remarks fit into Shoffner’s broader position that Arkansas agriculture has become heavily dependent on foreign-born labor. She has previously discussed the importance of the H-2A agricultural guest-worker program and said her own farming operation employed workers from Mexico who returned year after year.
Shoffner has also described growing up around agricultural workers from Mexico and Honduras, saying in a January interview that many were undocumented.
Her campaign biography describes her as a sixth-generation farmer who operated her family farm for nine years before closing it following the 2024 season. Shoffner has made agriculture, rural economic conditions and working-class issues central themes of her campaign against Cotton.
Immigration, however, represents a major policy difference between the candidates.
Cotton has advocated stricter immigration enforcement, including increased deportations and changes to the legal immigration system. Shoffner has emphasized creating legal pathways for immigrant workers while criticizing some current immigration enforcement policies.
The latest remarks give voters a particularly blunt example of her views on agricultural labor. Saying that farmers would trade five American workers for one undocumented worker is considerably more provocative than simply arguing that farms need access to immigrant labor.
Shoffner’s underlying argument is that foreign-born agricultural workers have become essential to American farming and that immigration law should provide employers with a more workable legal system for hiring them.
Her critics have focused instead on the comparison with American workers, arguing that the remark was dismissive toward U.S. citizens.
That disagreement now joins the larger immigration debate in Arkansas’ 2026 Senate race, where Cotton and Shoffner are offering substantially different approaches to enforcement, agricultural labor and the legal immigration system.
Sources: Breitbart News, Reuters, Arkansas Advocate, Hallie Shoffner for Senate campaign website.
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