The United Farmworkers Foundation (UFW) supports the Protect U.S. Farmworkers Act, introduced last week by several Democratic representatives. If passed, there would be a 400,000 cap on H-2A visas per fiscal year.
According to a press release from the UFW, the cap will combat the program’s overwhelming growth, which has increased sevenfold since 2005. This is part of an ongoing fight in which the Trump administration lowered the minimum wage for H-2A visas, which would have a direct impact on U.S. farmworkers, leading the UFW to file a lawsuit against the administration in November 2025.
“As we challenge the Trump administration in court over farm worker wage cuts and H-2A expansion, we critically need accountability over an H-2A program that has long displaced U.S. workers and has been plagued with abuse,” said UFW Foundation CEO Erica Lomeli Corcoran. “The explosive growth of the program over the last several years has been a tool for corporate greed and threatens to drive down the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. Rep. Jayapal’s Protect U.S. Farmworkers Act introduces a common-sense safeguard against H-2A employers undercutting the wages and jobs of those U.S. workers.”
The release also states that the Trump Administration expects the program to grow to over 514,000 a year. The bill states that in 2024, the program had 384,865 visas in the fiscal years which was a 40 percent increase from 275,430 just in 2020. The bill calls for a cap of 400,000, and Antonio De Loera, Communications Director for the UFW, said back in 2020, he would not have believed they were advocating for the cap to be 400,000 because of how many visas that is.
“We’re trying to basically cap it, freeze it at what it was last year. Frankly, a lot of workers will tell you that even last year it was already too high,” said De Loera. “But what we’re really hoping to do here is buy time to address this issue in a more substantive way, make sure that we’re protecting workers’ jobs. If you had told me in 2020 that there was going to be a cap of 400,000, I would have said, oh, well, you know, that’s such a high cap that that’s way higher than the number of workers who are actually being brought in.”
The release states that the program cannot be properly regulated due to its size and that employers illegally fire U.S farmworkers to bring in those on visas at lower rates. De Loera added that another issue with the program’s lack of regulation is the inability to monitor how employers treat those in the program, and stated that people are being taken advantage of both while in the states and before they get here.
“This program has had really exponential growth, has far exceeded the capacity of the federal government to actually regulate it and make sure that all the employers are following the provisions that’s laid out in the statute. We’ve seen, as a result, really horrific cases of abuse, forced labor, trafficking; workers in the H-2A program have died. There’s been some really, really horrific abuses,” said De Loera.
De Loera stated that federal investigators called the program modern-day slavery, and he explained that since the visas are tied to the employer, it’s up to the employer whether they get to come back the next year, so it is harder to speak up about the injustices happening. Even the recruiting process, according to De Loera, is unethical because workers are sometimes forced to pay bribes to obtain visas. He added that it has created a vulnerable workforce because their lives are completely controlled by their employers.
“Again, theoretically, that’s illegal. But again, this program has grown so fast that it has completely exceeded the capacity of the federal government to properly regulate it,” said De Loera. “For example, a lot of in-person visa interviews are not even required anymore. So there’s not even a U.S. consulate officer seeing who these workers actually are. You know, there’s no opportunity to inform them in person of their rights before they’re brought to the country in most cases. We’ve also seen cases of foreign labor contractors here in the United States forcing workers to work for them in Mexico first.”
De Loera emphasized that the growth of the program is dangerous for both those a part of the program and for U.S workers.
“We need to put a cap, stop its growth, and make sure that the workers in the program are protected and that the workers who have been here putting food on our table for decades are also able to make a living and work the jobs that they’ve always worked,” said De Loera.
He continued to say that if the program continues to grow at this rate, it will soon reach one million visas by the end of the decade, and that it would have negative impacts on the jobs and wages of the farmworkers in Kern County.
“So this is really about protecting local jobs, local wages, and really our communities, our tax bases, our way of life here in Kern County, and that’s something really important,” said De Loera.
H-2A job orders can be viewed on the U.S Department of Labor’s website, showing how many workers are being requested and at what pay rate. De Loera said one that stuck out to him was an employer requesting 200 workers in Kern County.
“They were all being requested at minimum wage. Thanks to the Trump wage cuts, they can now bring in H-2A workers and pay them no more than literally the minimum wage,” said De Leora. “Previously, the H-2A wage trade in California was close to $20. So it’s just become a lot cheaper to bring H-2A workers in. If that farm previously had hired 200 local workers, they’re now going to hire 200 H-2A workers. If that farm has local workers, they’re going to now be able to pay the minimum wage when most likely they were previously paying them higher.”
He continued to say he expects it to be harder for both U.S citizen and and undocumented farmworkers to find jobs or jobs that pay higher. He emphasized the importance of farmworkers being able to organize and become a part of a union.
“This is the moment to organize because if you don’t have a union contract, there’s really nothing preventing your employer from deciding to hire foreign workers if they’re going to work for less than what you’re going to work. And so the best way to protect your job and wages is to lock them in with a union contract,” said De Leora.
Although the majority of the employees have to agree to unionize, De Leora stated that it always starts with one interested employee.
For the community, he stated, everyone has a stake in what happens because even if you are not a farmworker, you are likely connected to one through friends or through who your children go to school with. De Loera added that just like the immigration raids have caused among the community, the growth of the H-2A program is causing hardship.
“What we need to be doing is legalizing and protecting the workforce that we already have, making sure that they can stay here, raise their families, pay their taxes, become citizens, and just continue to work and continue to put food on our table, but being paid fairly,” said De Leora.
