Uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s deportation policy has farms across the country on edge and renewing a push for Congress to expand the H-2A program to increase available legal farmworkers. But it may take Trump to get personally involved, and even that may not be enough.
The politics of ag labor reform remain as challenging as ever, but at least one barrier has come down: For several years, congressional Republicans put off legislation, arguing that the border had to be secure first. Now, illegal crossings have all but stopped under Trump.
House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., aims to take advantage of the situation by introducing a bill incorporating proposals issued by a bipartisan task force in 2024.
“We're working with key stakeholders. We're going to work through August, and one of my goals is to get that bill introduced after we're back. It's overdue,” Thompson said before the recess.
“The border is under control, not by the cartels, but by the United States of America. So, that is no longer an excuse not to take a proactive stance. This won't be a bill about citizenship. This will be a bill about really food security, which is national security.”
The task force’s recommendations included allowing year-round industries access to the H-2A program and reforming the adverse effect wage rate for H-2A employees. The task force also backed setting heat standards to protect farmworkers from high temperatures.
Thompson’s biggest challenge, however, is that his committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over the H-2A program or immigration policy more broadly. The House Judiciary Committee does, and its GOP membership includes conservative hardliners on immigration.
Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is looking at introducing an immigration bill along the lines of the Secure the Border Act that the committee moved in 2023. The bill had little to offer agriculture and, in fact, included a provision that would require employers to use the E-Verify system to check the legal status of new hires. Farm groups have traditionally opposed making E-Verify mandatory unless it's coupled with an expansion of the H-2A program.
A spokesperson for Judiciary Committee Republicans, Russell Dye, said in an email to Agri-Pulse that the H2-A program “is ripe for reform to reduce fraud and ensure that the program functions well for those for whom it was intended. Starting with our visa integrity hearing last month, the committee is beginning to look at nonimmigrant visa programs to determine specific reforms.”
He didn’t elaborate on what those reforms might entail. But he said that Jordan is “most interested in passing H.R 2-like legislation,” referring to the Secure the Border Act.
The challenge for farm groups remains: How do you get a bill through the House Judiciary Committee that can satisfy immigration hardliners while also securing 60 votes in the Senate, which would require some Democratic support?
Duane Simpson (LinkedIn photo)Duane Simpson, who recently took over as president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, hopes Trump will intervene and signal that H-2A legislation is a priority for him.
“I believe President Trump is the only leader in politics in the country who has the credibility with his base and on this issue that he can step forward and lead and solve it,” Simpson told Agri-Pulse.
“Congress is going to have to act, and Congress isn’t likely to act until the president gives them clear direction that this is what he wants them to do.”
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat who led an unsuccessful effort in 2022 to get the Senate to pass a House-approved ag labor bill, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, agrees that Trump’s support would get Republican support for H-2A legislation. Still, he thinks the political environment is tougher than it has been in recent years.
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“Unfortunately, with Donald Trump's election and the immigration policies that he's pursuing, I think we've done nothing but gone the wrong direction,” Bennet told Agri-Pulse. “And even before this administration came to Washington, our farmers and ranchers were desperately concerned about where their labor was going to come from, and our farmworkers were desperately worried about whether or not they were going to be able to work in in this sector.”
He added, “If there is good news it's that the pressure is only going to build on Washington, D.C., from the outside to get this solved, or we're going to lose our agriculture sector.”
Bennet noted that Republican critics of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act said it would provide “amnesty” to illegal immigrants because it offered a path to legal status for farmworkers. Legalizing existing workers has typically been key to getting Democratic support for H-2A reform.
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which passed the House twice when the chamber was under Democratic control, was reintroduced this year but hasn’t been considered by the Judiciary Committee. Other H-2A reform proposals include one by Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, that would expand the program to include greenhouses and indoor farms and roll back the adverse effect wage rate. The rate would be $2 an hour above the state’s minimum wage.
Kristi Boswell (Alston and Bird photo)Kristi Boswell, regulatory policy specialist with the Alston and Bird law firm who worked on ag labor in the White House during the first Trump administration, said “there is an energy around” the ag labor issue.
“This is a crisis situation on the ground. We have increased competition globally. We have food prices, you know, still very high. And you know, farmers and growers, they need access to a legal labor force, and they need a visa program that works well for them. And so, we're all looking to the administration, and to Congress, to move forward on responsible reforms.”
But Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, worries that there isn’t enough political momentum.
“There’s activity but getting enough folks together on the same page continues to be a challenge. … We haven’t seen a groundswell of support to actually get there and advance something – yet,” he said.
“When you think about some of the things that have occurred in terms of enforcement on farms you would hope to goodness we could get something done. Unfortunately, I’m not all that hopeful that we can get everyone on the same page.”
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