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Growers and farm labor contractors are expressing frustration with administrative holds that the State Department is placing on H-2A workers, preventing them from getting to their work places.
One farm labor contractor in particular has expressed concerns about a hold on several hundred workers who are stuck in Mexico as they await final approvals from U.S. consular officials, saying delays have already cost him and two growers more than $4 million in housing and other fees.
Steve Scaroni, CEO of the Scaroni Family of Companies, which includes the farm labor contractor FLC Fresh Harvest, said at the National Council of Agricultural Employers annual meeting that he and two other NCAE members collectively are out about $4.25 million to pay for workers languishing in Mexico.
Scaroni said his bill so far has been about $250,000, while two other NCAE members have spent $3 million and $1 million to pay for workers’ hotels, food and security.
Referring to the job order that has to be initially submitted to the Labor Department, he told Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., at the meeting, “That ‘date of need’ is a real date of need. It's not two weeks later, three weeks later. It's a real date of need,” especially when taking into consideration the fact that the workers will be harvesting perishable crops such as lettuce and fruit.
Newhouse said, “That's going to be on my to-do list.”
Growers and labor contractors otherwise welcomed changes that the Trump administration made in rules for the H-2A program.
“There is a real challenge right now in realizing the savings from the Department of Labor's interim final rule, because the agencies, particularly the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security, are putting what we believe are unnecessary holds on workers that, in the end, don't have any violations,” John Hollay, president and CEO of NCAE, said on the sidelines of the event last week.
John Hollay (Linkedin photo)“It’s causing millions of dollars of losses to these producers, who, in theory, were going to be saving those dollars from the interim final rule,” Hollay said. “So, it's critical that the administration get this right in the final rule, and that Congress act to make sure that the regulations work the way that that the Trump administration intended.”
NCAE cheered the interim final rule for “reining in” the adverse effect wage rate under the program and simplifying job classifications.
H-2A keeps growing
The H-2A program has become increasingly popular over the years. Brian Pasternak, the Labor Department’s administrator of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification, said at the meeting that employers are requesting more workers on each application.
The department has gotten nearly 14,000 applications for 2026 covering about 196,000 positions, Pasternak said. That’s more than 30,000 more workers than were covered by this point in the last fiscal year.
“We're seeing more workers on these applications,” Pasternak said.
Scaroni said he doesn’t know why the holds have been placed on his workers.
“Basically, we don't get any documentation,” he told Agri-Pulse. “The consulate [in Tijuana] says, we know we're supposed to give you the H-2A stamp today for your employees, but the State Department has put these employees on administrative hold. You're not going to get the stamp today. It's all verbal, or maybe it's an email from the State Department or the consulate. The State Department never talks to us.”
State Department officials at the conference said they would look into the holds. One of those officials, Amy Tachco, an industry liaison in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, said the department, as the last stop in the H-2A process, tends to get “the fallout for anything that might have happened before.”
H-2A applications go first to the OFLC, and then employers have to submit a petition to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security, whjch then goes to a State Department consulate where workers get their official visas.
Tachco said she sympathizes with employers who have to deal with multiple federal agencies, but that sometimes State receives petitions late in the process.
“I'm not making excuses. It's not great,” she said. “We're constantly working both with the other agencies and internally to speed up processes.”
A DHS spokesperson suggested inquiring with the State Department about the issue. Contacted Tuesday, Scaroni said the issue hadn’t been resolved.
One grower, Jordan Rolfe, chief operating officer of Olson’s Greenhouse Gardens in Utah, said that while “we do not currently have any workers in active administrative hold status, we have experienced increased holds and processing inconsistencies this season.” One delay “pushed roughly 150,000 units behind schedule in our greenhouse operation, creating potential exposure of about $1 million in seasonal sales. While we expect to recover a portion, delayed planting creates real risk of missed retail windows in a seasonal business.”
“Even short delays create additional lodging and transportation costs and add uncertainty for time-sensitive operations,” Rolfe said. “When administrative holds occur, they typically add $300–$400 per worker” per day.
Rolfe said he and other growers met with officials at the White House last week “to discuss implementation challenges,” particularly coordination between the State Department and USCIS. “We are encouraged that agencies such as State and DHS are engaging directly and working to address issues as they arise,” he said in an email to Agri-Pulse.
“We are very thankful to President Trump and his administration for the interim final rule,” Rolfe said. “It is a meaningful improvement for agriculture, and we appreciate the Department of Labor’s efforts to modernize and digitize the H-2A process.”
