Immigration

Will 2026 Finally Be the Year for Immigration and Ag Labor Reform?

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 21:44:58 GMT

Talk to any farm group across the country, and they will tell you that the agricultural labor shortage is one of the most limiting factors in the industry right now next to low grain profitability.

The Time is Now
The debate over immigration and ag labor reform has been a political hot potato for decades, which has led to inaction by Congress. However, there are some indications from the leadership of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees that 2026 might be the year a long- or short-term fix could finally be passed.

The chairs and ranking members of both committees joined American Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall at their annual convention in Anaheim, Calif., this week to talk about a variety of ag topics, but the focus quickly turned to ag labor. There was consensus among all four that solving this crisis was a priority for 2026.

Senate Ag Committee Leadership Making Ag Labor a Priority
Senate Ag Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., says the H-2A program is not working and there is pressure to find a solution.

“And I just think the time has come to get this done,” she says. “Michael Bennett has a bill that I am a co-sponsor of that would fix the H-2A visa program and make sure that we have year-round visas, that we are doing something on wage certainty protecting the existing workforce.”

Klobuchar says she has worked on immigration and agricultural labor reform over the course of several administrations, only to hit a brick wall in the end. However, she believes the need has become too great in the U.S. among industries like agriculture to ignore. To get this across the finish line farm groups like the American Farm Bureau will need to appeal to lawmakers about how refusing to solve this crisis could put more farmers out of business.

“You’ve got to make that economic case about how we want to feed the world,” she says. “We want to have strong businesses, and to do that we need a smart immigration system that allows for workers.”

Why is 2026 Different?
One change that has improved the political climate is the Trump administration’s beefed up efforts to protect the U.S. southern border says Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark.

“We said we could not do reform because the border was not secure, and it wasn’t secure; it was just the opposite of that,” he says. “We’ve worked hard; it is secure now, then through Visa programs you control the flow, but it’s time to do that.”

Boozman adds that another important change is the consensus in agriculture about the importance of reforming immigration and ag labor.

“Every farm group I talk to say this is a top priority,” he says. “We need massive reform, and the good news is on both sides of the aisle, I think, that we are getting that message because of your hard work lobbying.”

House Ag Committee Leadership Has Already Laid the Groundwork
House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson, R-Pa., agrees it is time to break the grid lock on ag labor reform in place since the 1980s.

“Because if you don’t have a work force you have food insecurity; if you have food insecurity you have national insecurity,” he says.

In the 118^th Congress Thompson laid the groundwork for legislation by assembling a 16-member bipartisan task force on ag labor that included a cross section of farmers and processors. He says the result was a thoughtful action plan that provided 21 recommendations for reform.

“Fifteen of those were unanimous, and so we have taken those to legislative council,” he says. “We’d probably be a little further ahead if we didn’t have that goofy shutdown. We are looking forward here in this first quarter of this year of getting that introduced.”

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig, D-Minn., says it’s a good first step but warns the challenge for immigration reform is the ongoing ICE actions carried out by Homeland Security. She had heard from dairy farmers in her home state about the chilling effect its having on the work force.

“Whether they were legal immigrants or not, they don’t want to come to work because they fear this environment right now,” she says.

Craig says at times the administration has given the impression that they do not want immigrant labor in the U.S., and so that needs to change to be able to build enough support in Congress to pass this legislation.

Fear, Uncertainty on ICE Raids Complicated 2025's Labor Crisis

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:43:35 GMT

Despite some labor-related wins early in the year, the threat of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on farming operations had chilling effects on labor in the fresh produce industry in 2025.

Given that President Donald Trump said that the raids “haven’t gone far enough” in an early-November 60 Minutes interview , it is quite possible they will continue in the future.

The raids kicked off in earnest in early summer, hitting right in the heart of fresh produce’s biggest season. On June 11, The Packer’s Christina Herrick reported on the fallout of an ICE raid in Oxnard, Calif., the day before. The Farm Bureau of Ventura County called ICE’s actions “an unacceptable escalation,” describing agents as having tried to enter a local packing facility without a judicial warrant and having targeted locations and routes frequented by agriculture workers.

“Let us be unequivocal: racial profiling is illegal; intimidation is not enforcement,” the organization said. “Using fear to destabilize the workforce that powers our farms is a reckless and short-sighted tactic with far-reaching consequences.”

A few days later, in the wake of Trump’s mixed messaging on ICE raids, The Packer’s Jennifer Strailey sat down with Kevin Kelly. Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging, the largest flexible packaging supplier to the leafy greens industry. Strailey had questions about the impact of the raids and the uncertainty around them from the front lines.

“I think a lot of folks are feeling uncertain and afraid,” Kelly said, noting rumors are sometimes as good as reality when it came to ICE raids’ chilling effect. “We’ve certainly heard that folks aren’t turning up to work in the fields, and we’ve seen it in our facility.”

The uncertainty persisted in June, and just a few days later, Joe Del Bosque, CEO of Del Bosque Farms in California, talked to Michelle Rook of “AgriTalk” radio .

“There’s so much uncertainty as to what the administration is going to do,” he said. “One day they say they’re going to help the farmers … and then the next day they come out and say, ‘we’re going to deport them all.’”

The flip-flopping made farmworkers and farmers alike nervous, even though there had been few actual ICE raids of agricultural operations up to that point. Del Bosque talked about what it would take to make everyone feel safe to come to work again.

The Packer will continue to cover ICE raids and other impacts to farm labor as it happens. You can find that and related coverage here .

America's Farm Labor Crisis: Can Immigration Reform Save Agriculture?

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 19:24:01 GMT

Walking orchards in the Central Valley, is something Scott Peters’ family has done for four generations. With his great grandfather settling in the fertile valley in 1933, the family has been immersed with changes. From regulations and battles over water, to the fight for labor and immigration, Peters Fruit Farms is not only working to preserve the past, but also fighting for their future.

“Today, we primarily grow stone fruit. We’ve gone a little bit into the citrus just to diversify. We have the packing house, so we want to keep it running year round. Citrus is the winter commodity, and stone fruit is the summer commodity,” Peters says.

The Peters are unique. They don’t just grow and pick the fruit. They’re also packers and shippers — an operation that relies on hundreds of employees throughout the year.

“Labor prices are really difficult for us,” says the California peach grower. “As an example, our minimum wage is $16.50. When we compete against Georgia (known as the ‘Peach State’), their minimum wage $7.25. It’s just under half of what we have to pay people, which means we just don’t have a margin of error. If there’s something wrong with the crop — if we have a weather event — it stings us a lot harder.”

California’s Farm Labor is Skilled and Difficult to Replace

That’s the reality for farmers across California. Not only are regulations and water becoming expensive for growers across the state, but labor costs are also on the rise. And considering labor is the highest cost for fruit growers, it’s putting a severe strain on producers.

And while it’s expensive, labor is one of Peters’ most critical resources.

“They’re a very talented labor force. We can’t just go and get somebody off the street,” he says. “We can’t get an H-2A worker from another country who doesn’t know the industry. They can’t do the same job.”

From Arizona to California, to meat processing plants that span across the U.S. Peters says that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about migrant labor. People may think they aren’t talented or skilled, but Peters argues they’re both.

“The supervisors have these rings, and we’ll open them up to the size of fruit we want picked. They will pick a few samples off the tree, show them what sits on the ring and what goes through the ring. And the labor we have picking in the orchard, they will know — just by looking at the rings — which fruit to pick,” Peters explains. “They’ll just go from limb to limb, tree to tree, and they’ll pick the size that we’re requesting by the rings.”

Scott Peters shows U.S. Farm Report host Tyne Morgan rings they use to show individuals who are picking the fruit just what size of fruit they need to pick that day. With barely any difference in the size, it shows just how skilled the labor that works in Peters’ orchards are today.

(Matt Mormann, Farm Journal )

Peters says, to the untrained eye, the difference in the size of the rings is unnoticeable — making the labor this orchard employs irreplaceable.

“That’s how skilled they are,” he says. “So when people say they’re replaceable and you can get H-2A people or other people off the street, no, it doesn’t work that way. Those people will have no idea that small of a difference when we’re asking them to pick a certain size.”

The Broken U.S. Immigration System

The individuals Peters employs aren’t part of the H-2A system. Instead, his workers have been in California for generations, doing manual labor many Americans either don’t want to do, or physically can’t do, at a speed that’s needed today.

“The immigration system in the U.S. is absolutely broken today,” Peters tells U.S. Farm Report. “Why? Because they don’t have a simple, easy way to make immigrants legal. It’s complicated. It’s not very easily accessible for the people. If they find a way to do it, it takes them a long time. We have employees that have gone through the process and are legal. At the time, we did not know they were not. We had no idea. When they come to us, they show us a valid ID, and they show a valid social security card. As far as we’re concerned, we are hiring legal people. And then they come back to us down the road and they show other cards and say, ‘Well, now i need to change.’ Then we have to abide by the new name because of the standards.”

Results from Farm Journal’s Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor

(Lindsey Pound )

Agricultural economists from across the U.S. agree. In the latest Farm Journal Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor , 87% of economists said the U.S. immigration system is broken for agriculture. But on the flip side, 87% of economists also said there will be no movement on immigration reform in 2025.

Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers Leagu e, has been fighting for a fix to the current immigration system for decades. He says the current 40-year-old immigration system doesn’t work for agriculture. He argues it’s dramatically impacting California’s agricultural landscape.

“It’s horribly broken, and you can’t band-aid it together anymore,” Cunha tells U.S. Farm Report.

H-2A Program Doesn’t Work for California Agriculture

The H-2A guest worker program may work for some sectors of agriculture, but it’s not a comprehensive “fix” for agriculture — especially industries that rely on a large number of seasonal labor.

While the program is vital for addressing domestic labor shortages, for labor-intensive specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, the H-2A program is designed to provide a cortical legal source of labor where domestic workers are often unwilling or unavailable.

However, Cunha says what the H-2A guest worker program is designed to do, and how it actually works, are two different things.

“The cost is prohibitive. It’s a broken program. A guest worker program should be what it is. You go to the border, get a card and come into California or Arizona or wherever, work for 10 months and then leave,” Cunha says. “The system today requires people to through a process in the countries where you have recruiters that control the workers. They, in turn, kind of manipulate those workers where to go and how much you’re going to pay me, then the person comes here. On top of that, to provide required housing, transportation and meals is very costly. In this state, at $23 an hour, no farmer can afford that.”

Cunha says these are all reasons why the H-2A program must be reformed.

“We also must have a guest worker program for hotels, restaurants and construction to where those workers can come in here, they work for 10 months in a rotation, they go back and then they come back again,” Cunha says. “But it’s a guest worker program and not allowing the country to select and choose who you want. There has to be a great working relationship on a guest worker program that works for my industry and agriculture and the other industries as well.”

40-Year-Old Program

The last major immigration reform in the United States was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which granted legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants and increased penalties for employers hiring them.

The legislation, now 40 years old, is something Cunha argues is out of date.

Efforts to pass new immigration legislation have frequently failed due to partisan disagreements and an inability to find common ground between parties and administrations.

“They use it so they can get re-elected every time. And it’s so sad that our legislators have that type of mentality. Let’s not fix it, because if we say we’re going fix it, that’s how we’ll get elected. That’s how we’ll get re-elected,” Cunha says. “It’s been broken, and it’s been a facade.”

Dignity Act of 2025

Cunha says the only solution on the table that would work today is the Dignity Act of 2025. The bill was introduced on July 15 by Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Veronica Escobar (D-TX).

The bill not only focuses on securing the border, but it provides legal status to qualifying undocumented immigrants. It also imposes higher penalties for illegal border crossings and human and child sex trafficking. Not only would it address America’s farm labor crisis, but Cunha says it could help save agricultural industries that rely heavily on migrant labor across the U.S.

“This is the first real immigration bill that has addressed industries. The Farm Worker Modernization Act was just ag, and it really didn’t do all of ag. It only did the field and not the packing houses or the processing,” Cunha explains. “But being that we’re in the year 2025, many industries like agriculture have the same problem. Those workers have been there for years. And so somehow, we need to give them that opportunity to have a legal means to work here and to travel home.

Cunha says the U.S. has to do something new when it comes to immigration reform, and the Dignity Act of 2025 gives that life.

“The president continually gives off positive vibes: ‘I want the workers to stay here. They are important for the industries, agriculture, the restaurants, the hotels, the construction.’ So, those people need to be here. The bill absolutely deals with that. It makes them have dignity, respect and the fear of not being apprehended any part of the day, going to church or going to the hospital or whatever. They would have a legal card, and the bill’s doing that,” Cunha says.

For now, there’s a nervousness among workers in California — essential labor that supports California’s multi-billion-dollar farming community.

“The workers that are here are more than any H-2A worker that could ever come into the unit. We have 1.6 million. The Department of Labor couldn’t even handle that number if they wanted to bring in H-2A people. The system would blow up,” Cunha says.

California Farmers Are Hopeful

In June, President Donald Trump said he would issue an order soon to address the effects of his immigration crackdown on the country’s farm and hotel industries, which rely heavily on migrant labor.

Trump continues to send mixed signals on immigration policies — even with his hints of a fix for agriculture. According to preliminary Census Bureau data, analyzed by the Pew Research Center , the number of immigrant workers in the U.S. has declined by 1.2 million from January through the end of July. That figure includes people who are in the country illegally, as well as legal residents.

Peters says, considering the Trump administration continues to focus on agriculture, he is hanging onto hope. The hope is that Washington will finally find a long-term fix that helps farmers and protects the precious labor they can’t do without.

“They’re very talented workers,” Peters says. “They have skills, and they’re very hard to replace. You have to train the new person, and it’s how fast they pick up on the training. We’ve looked at robots that do pick fruit. The technology is coming, but it’s not there yet. It’s got a ways to go.”

Americans’ View on Immigration

Americans seem to be growing more positive toward immigration over the past year. According to a Gallup poll released in June, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.

According to Gallup, these shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021. And with illegal border crossings down sharply this year, the Gallup poll found fewer Americans back hard-line border enforcement measures, while more favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

The Labor Conundrum: Navigating Workforce Shortages in the U.S.

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:53:43 GMT

In recent years, discussions around the slowing growth rate of the U.S. labor force have intensified. Rob Fox from CoBank highlights a pressing issue in the company’s latest quarterly report: the potential drag on economic growth due to labor supply constraint.

While the urgency of the problem seemed to subside temporarily, recent developments have brought it back into focus.

Demographic Challenges
Eighteen years ago, the U.S. boasted a fertility rate of 2.12 children per woman, surpassing the level necessary for a stable population. However, the economic upheaval caused by the Great Financial Crisis led to a significant decline in births, a trend that continues to this day. The fertility rate as of 2023 has dropped to 1.62 children per woman. The impact of these “missing births” is now becoming evident as this age cohort begins entering adulthood, coinciding with the retirement of the baby boomer generation. This demographic shift presents a dual blow to the labor market.

Fox says adopting technology — most obviously AI and robotics — will likely be at the core of any strategy to address oncoming labor shortages.

Participation Rates
Another pressing issue is the downward trend in labor force participation rates since 2000. Currently at 62%, a stark decline from the peak of 67%, this translates to approximately 9.7 million potential workers lost.

“Worryingly, this trend may be accelerating: 2.4 million working-aged people have dropped out of the labor force in the past eight months alone,” Fox says, noting some reasons include increased caregiving responsibilities, job skill obsolescence, mental health challenges and rising disability rates.

Immigration as a Balancing Act
For a brief period, immigration helped offset the labor shortage. Humanitarian crises, less restrictive immigration policies, and strong labor demand attracted nearly 9 million immigrants to the U.S. between 2022 and 2024. However, since late 2024, immigration levels have sharply declined. Additionally, the Trump administration’s plan to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants further complicates the scenario. Without a reversal in participation rates or policy changes, the worker pool will continue to shrink.

Agricultural Implication
These labor issues are particularly acute in rural areas, affecting industries like agriculture. Richard Stup from Cornell Cooperative Extension underscores the diminishing labor pool available for farm work. Countries like Mexico — historically a source of agricultural labor — are experiencing similar demographic changes. Economic improvements in these countries reduce the impetus for migration, further tightening labor availability.

“[The population in] Mexico, going forward, will begin to actually shrink,” he says. “It’s not just Mexico. There are a lot of countries in this situation.”

In addition to a smaller pool of workers willing to fill on-farm vacancies, economic opportunities in these countries — such as an increase in Mexico’s inflation-adjusted dollars — are reducing the push factor for migration.

“It means there’s more economic activity, there’s more job opportunity and there’s less push to leave Mexico and go to the U.S. for dollars,” he says. “There’s still a lot of push to come up here, but it’s not what it used to be.”

When looking at the data, Stup notes fewer young people are looking for work.

“The average age of foreign-born employees is about 42 years,” he says. For comparison, the average age of U.S. born employees on farms is 36 years old.

Stup says technology will be used in places where the work is repetitive and heavy manual labor. He also underscores the need for retention programs and attracting a diverse pool of workers. Skills such as critical and systems thinking, data savviness and comfort with animals will be essential for future dairy workers. Education, whether formal or through on-the-job training, is equally important.

The decreasing labor supply poses significant challenges that could hinder U.S. economic growth if not addressed. Without strategic interventions in demographic policies, a shift in immigration approaches, or incentives to boost labor participation, the labor market’s stability remains at risk.

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Washington, Oregon Onion Growers Wary of ICE Visits

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:06:55 GMT

So far, it doesn’t appear that onion growers in Washington or Oregon have experienced significant disruptions from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking for undocumented immigrants under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, but that doesn’t mean employers and workers themselves aren’t concerned.

Securing adequate labor is “getting harder and harder with ICE and deportations,” says Steve Brennan, salesman for Seattle-based F.C. Bloxom Co.

“It’s going to trickle down,” he says. “It started in the field, it’s going to trickle to the shed, and it’s going to trickle to transportation and drivers, too.”

F.C. Bloxom Co. hadn’t been visited by ICE agents as of mid-July, he says, but some nearby cherry orchards had. Even workers with valid visas were being detained while their paperwork was verified, he says. “People are a little scared.”

ICE had not bothered Iona, Idaho-based Eagle Eye Produce either, says Joe Ange, director of onion sales.

“We work with a consistent and reliable labor force that returns year after year,” Ange explains. “We have been staying up to date on recent immigration developments, and while labor is always a consideration in agriculture, we have not experienced any disruptions this season.”

The same was true at Castoldi’s family farm in Walla Walla, Wash., says Nathan Castoldi, an owner and operator.

“We have a good, solid crew and have had no [ICE] issues at this time,” he says, adding that things could change in the future.

Department of Labor to Establish Office of Immigration Policy

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 21:26:01 GMT

Last week, Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the administration plans a one-stop shop for those using the H-2A guestworker program .

In a memorandum dated June 23 , Chavez-DeRemer called for the establishment of the Office of Immigration Policy.

“Given the high-profile nature of employment-based immigration and necessity to coordinate implementation of administration policy objectives across multiple federal agencies, I hereby temporarily establish the Office of Immigration Policy (OIP) within the Office of the Secretary to more effectively assist me in carrying out my responsibilities under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Chavez-DeRemer said in the memorandum.

According to a Department of Labor spokesperson, Chavez-DeRemer will appoint Brian Pasternak, who currently serves as the administrator of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification in Employment and Training Administration (ETA), as the director of this new Office of Immigration Policy.

Chavez-DeRemer said the responsibilities of the Office of Immigration Policy will:

Establish strategic oversight and resource management of funding for immigration related work across the department and any additional funding or forms of resources
Establish strategic management and policy priorities for immigration related work streams, then provide day-to-day direction and oversight to implement these priorities in close coordination with affected DOL agency heads
Monitor the administration of foreign labor certification activities and develop customer-centered policies, in consultation with the assistant secretary for ETA, to improve access to employment-based visa programs, optimize program performance, and ensure use of the latest technologies to improve service delivery and continuity of operations
Establish strategic priority and scope for all immigration related policy and regulatory projects and provide management oversight to track and coordinate the timely completion of all project milestones and deadlines
Manage priorities, expectations and communications of immigration related initiatives and projects with external partners, including the Office of Management and Budget, United States Digital Service, Congress, press, and other relevant external stakeholders, in close coordination with internal DOL agency heads (e.g., OCIA, OPA)
Oversee coordination with and between other relevant federal agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Agriculture

Up to 70% of Farmworkers Not Returning to California Farms following ICE Raids

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:33:47 GMT

Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, Calif., an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of President Donald Trump’s migration crackdown, have frightened off workers.

“In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone,” she says. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.”

In the vast agricultural lands north of Los Angeles, stretching from Ventura County into the state’s central valley, two farmers, two field supervisors and four immigrant farmworkers told Reuters this month that the ICE raids have led a majority of workers to stop showing up.

That means crops are not being picked, and fruit and vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time, they say.

One Mexican farm supervisor, who asked not to be named, was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries last week. Usually he would have 300 workers, he says. On this day, he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm says he usually has 80 workers in a field, but today just 17.

Bad For Business

Most economists and politicians acknowledge that many of America’s agricultural workers are in the country illegally, but say a sharp reduction in their numbers could have devastating impacts on the food supply chain and farm-belt economies.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, says an estimated 80% of farmworkers in the U.S. were foreign-born, with nearly half of them in the country illegally. Losing them will cause price hikes for consumers, he says.

“This is bad for supply chains, bad for the agricultural industry,” Holtz-Eakin says.

Over a third of U.S. vegetables and over three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The state’s farms and ranches generated nearly $60 billion in agricultural sales in 2023.

Of the four immigrant farmworkers Reuters spoke to, two are in the country illegally. These two spoke on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of being arrested by ICE.

One, aged 54, has worked in U.S. agricultural fields for 30 years and has a wife and children in the country. He says most of his colleagues have stopped showing up for work.

“If they show up to work, they don’t know if they will ever see their family again,” he says.

The other worker, in the country illegally, tells Reuters, “Basically, we wake up in the morning scared. We worry about the sun, the heat and now a much bigger problem — many not returning home. I try not to get into trouble on the street. Now, whoever gets arrested for any reason gets deported.”

To be sure, some farmworker community groups say many workers were still returning to the fields, despite the raids, out of economic necessity.

The days following a raid might see decreased attendance in the field, but the workers soon return because they have no other sources of income, five groups tell Reuters.

Workers are also taking other steps to reduce their exposure to immigration agents, like carpooling with people with legal status to work or sending U.S. citizen children to the grocery store, the groups say.

ICE Chill

Trump conceded in a post on his Truth Social account this month that ICE raids on farm workers — and also hotel workers — were “taking very good, long-time workers away” from those sectors, “with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Trump later told reporters, “Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers.” He added: “They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great.”

He pledged to issue an order to address the impact, but no policy change has yet been enacted.

Trump has always stood up for farmers, says White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly in response to a request for comment on the impact of the ICE raids to farms.

“He will continue to strengthen our agricultural industry and boost exports while keeping his promise to enforce our immigration laws,” she says.

Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, a nonpartisan global economics advisory firm, says native-born workers tend not to fill the void left by immigrant workers who have left.

“Unauthorized immigrants tend to work in different occupations than those who are native-born,” he says.

ICE operations in California’s farmland were scaring even those who are authorized, says Greg Tesch, who runs a farm in central California.

“Nobody feels safe when they hear the word ICE, even the documented people,” Tesch says. “We know that the neighborhood is full of a combination of those with and without documents.”

“If things are ripe, such as our neighbors have bell peppers here, (if) they don’t harvest within two or three days, the crop is sunburned or over-mature,” Tesch says. “We need the labor.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid, Sebastian Rocandio, Pilar Olivares, and Leah Douglas Editing by Mary Milliken and Rosalba O’Brien)

Rollins Says H-2A Reforms Likely Soon

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:15:24 GMT

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says the administration is looking at ways to improve the efficiency of the H-2A guestworker program and make it easier for growers to use. Rollins made the announcement during a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association held in Santa Fe, N.M.

The administration will have more details coming soon as well as announcements from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security.

“We have all been directed by the president to come up with solutions to fix and solve this problem immediately,” Rolins says.

Rollins acknowledges Congress will play a key role in larger H-2A visa reform.

“It’s a congressional act,” she says. “Significant changes can’t occur without our partners on the Hill.”

But she also adds H-2A reform is a bipartisan issue, and while long-term fixes are on the table, there’s an opportunity in the short term to alleviate the burden of the application process.

“The idea that the farm I visited this morning, here in New Mexico, Silver Leaf Farms, they provide 250,000 heads of lettuce to local schools and communities here in New Mexico,” she says. “They don’t have the capability when they need to hire a couple more workers for their harvest to hire and spend tens of thousands, if not more, on legal help to get them through.”

Rollins says the administration seeks to improve the processes to ensure growers have the workforce needed.

“How we can streamline the current process, obviously within current law, to make sure it is much more efficient, that those we are bringing in from Mexico or from wherever, from around the world, to work the fields, to ensure we have the labor force we need, that they’re able to do that efficiently, effectively and not cost prohibitively,” she says.

Agriculture in the Bull's-Eye: Raids Reportedly Resume on Farms, Meatpacking Plants

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 18:40:22 GMT

After President Donald Trump reportedly ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ) to pause raids on farms and meatpacking plants last week, new reports say the administration is reversing course again. The on-again, off-again reports regarding ICE raids is sowing confusion for those who rely on immigrant labor and already causing labor shortages due to employees not showing up for work.

There was an update again late Friday, with President Trump saying he’s looking at new immigration policy steps that would allow farms to take responsibility for people they hire.

The Washington Post first reported Monday that ICE officials told leaders representing field offices across the country they must continue to conduct raids at worksite locations, which is a reversal from guidance issued just days earlier.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wouldn’t confirm the Washington Post’s report, but an agricultural association told Farm Journal the article is accurate based on their discussions with the administration.

Instead, DHS told us this:

“The president has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts,” says DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safe guard public safety, national security and economic stability. These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation.”

By Friday, there was another update. Reuters reported President Trump said he was looking at immigration policy steps that would allow farms to take responsibility for people they hire.

“We’re looking at doing something where, in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility, because we can’t put the farms out of business,” Trump told reporters. “And at the same time we don’t want to hurt people that aren’t criminals.”

According to Farm Journal’s Michelle Rook, the recent ICE raids are already creating absenteeism and labor shortages that could severally disrupt the U.S. food supply. Ag groups are again calling for immigration reform with hopes the issue will finally come to a head.

Ripple Effect of Immigration Crackdown

Joe Del Bosque, owner of Del Bosque Farms in Firebaugh, Calif., is experiencing the rollercoaster with labor, saying the shifting policy strikes fear in farmers and workers.

“There’s so much uncertainty as to what the administration’s going to do,” Del Bosque told Rook on AgriTalk this week.

Del Bosque says the raids on California produce farms are disrupting the harvest of perishable produce.

“They haven’t been really huge sweeps. They’re usually picking up a few people. But it creates a lot of fear, and people don’t show up to work. That’s just as bad as if they were taken away,” he says.

According to an exclusive report by Farm Journal’s The Packer , the ripple effect of Trump’s immigration crackdown on agriculture could be far-reaching — if the administration revives its focus on ag.

Kevin Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging — the largest flexible packaging supplier to the leafy greens industry. Based in Union City, Calif., the company has been in the packaging business for 62 years. Kelly says the immigrant workforce in California is feeling uncertain and afraid.

“We’ve certainly heard folks aren’t turning up to work in the fields, and we’ve seen it in our facility. We verify everybody, so we know everybody in our facility is documented and can legally work in the United States,” Kelly tells Jennifer Strailey, editor of The Packer. “In our case, it’s brothers and sisters being deported, and other family members being afraid. Our employees are staying home to help their family members move, to take care of them or to take them to see an attorney — that kind of thing.”

Dairy operations in several states have also been raided recently. Dairy producers say they rely on immigrant labor to provide a stable year-round work force and to keep the U.S. food supply stable.

“We need these people to take care of our animals so we can produce food. Without animal care, we won’t have milk, cheese, butter — nothing,” Greg Moes, MoDak Dairy in Goodwin, S.D., told Rook.

The recent ICE arrests at Glenn Valley Foods of Omaha, Neb. have also led to absenteeism at meat processing plants.

“At the beginning of the Trump administration, we had this same worry with the crackdown — whether this was going to impact absenteeism and things like that,” says Brad Kooima, Kooima Kooima Varilek in Sioux Center, Iowa. “So, hopefully we can put that in our rearview mirror.”

By the Numbers: A Heavy Reliance on Immigrant Labor
The news this week of the Trump administration putting a pause on raids of farms and meat processors is welcome news for those in agriculture. From dairies and produce farms, to meatpacking plants across the U.S., these sectors rely heavily on immigrant labor.

Immigrant labor makes up a substantial portion of the meat processing workforce, with estimates ranging from 37% to over 50%. However, states like South Dakota and Nebraska have even higher concentrations of immigrant workers in meat processing — reaching 58% and 66%, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute.

And a large portion of U.S. dairy farms rely on immigrant labor, with estimates indicating that over half of all dairy workers are immigrants. Specifically, these workers account for 51% of the total dairy workforce and are responsible for producing 79% of the U.S. milk supply.

Farmworker Justice estimates 70% of the produce industry’s farmworkers are immigrants. USDA’s estimates are lower — closer to 60%.

Internal Audit Key Step to Prepare for ICE Inspection

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 21:24:22 GMT

For agriculture businesses, navigating worker verification can be tricky. And after preparing an operation and crews for a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), the next step is to do an internal audit of all employee forms, says Jocelyn Campanaro, partner of Fisher & Phillips, who specializes in immigration.

“That’s different than the raids where they come in with the warrants,” Campanaro says. “This is where you get a document, and you have three days to provide your IDs. Doing that internal audit is really important. This will really help reduce risks of a raid, and it will also help reduce a fine or civil and criminal liability if they’re audited.”

Questions to ask include:

Do we have documents for everybody?
Do we have I-9s for everyone?
Do we have proper documentation?
Are our practices good, or do we need more training?
Do we need to look at Green Cards or documents more closely?

A misconception, Campanaro says, is that many employers think just because an employee supplied documents, the employer is in the clear. But these internal audits mean taking a very close look at the documents employees supplied. Look for things that might be “off.”

“If the font is really out of line, if the picture is crooked,” she says. “If it looks fake on its face, and you look at it twice, those are things that are red flags.”

And this, Campanaro says, might also mean that employees taking those documents might need further training to better prevent risk and liability in the future.

“It’s also possible, during an audit that you find that there are folks who have fake documents that you can look at them, and they for whatever reason, they’re something that doesn’t look reasonably real, it could result in having to terminate people from employment if they can’t provide something else to show they are authorized,” she says.

And this is a crucial point in an internal audit — to terminate employees with suspect documents or potentially face an ICE raid.

“The best step in a proactive approach is to do an audit, have outside, independent auditors do it like attorneys or law firms, or do it internally, do training, make sure you’re doing things as good as possible, so that if you are audited, your liability is as low as possible, and you have a good faith effort shown that you’re really trying to do this the right way,” she says.

Campanaro says employers must screen all documents to ensure there’s no reason to believe they’re not legitimate. And then if an employer did its due diligence, then the company has fulfilled its responsibility.

“People often think, ‘Well, I have documents.’ That’s great. That’s the first step,” she says. “The second step is to look in and see if there is an area where you’re susceptible, or maybe things aren’t as good as you think, and that’s where some employers can get into bigger issues.”

Other things employers can do are use E-Verify and stay up to date on the latest information. Fisher & Phillips has some resources on its website to help. Campanaro says Fisher & Phillips also offers internal audit training, but above all, she says the real key to preparing is communication.

“Communicating with your workforce, letting them know what’s going on, or what you’re doing, just making sure everybody knows their rights under the Constitution, but making sure that anything that you’re providing to employees, you’re providing to all employees,” she says.

Immigration Attorney’s Tips to Prepare for ICE Raid

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 11:21:52 GMT

As the threat of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on farms and farmworkers looms, it’s important to have a plan in place before ICE strikes, says Vanessa Frank, an immigration attorney working in Ventura County, Calif.

Much like farms prepare for food safety recalls and audits, growers need to take the same level of care and preparation for a potential ICE audit.

“Once ICE is at your site, and if you don’t already have a plan in place, it’s a little too late,” she says.

A good step to start is to determine what part of your operation is private property and what part of the property would ICE need a warrant to enter. Are there signs or ways to distinguish that it’s private property? Next, who is the owner on record of the property?

“There shouldn’t be any uninvited guests on private property,” Frank says. “I can imagine some folks might consider putting in fencing if that’s practical, but it’s not always.”

Then, it’s important to have a plan in place of who workers and crews can call and what steps employees would take if ICE attempts to enter a property. It’s important to designate crew members informed of the policy and trained on what a valid warrant looks like and what that warrant specifies.

“It’s well and good to say, ‘Nobody’s allowed here without a warrant,’” she says. “So that means that people who are on the ground, physically there, need to be able to know what is a legitimate warrant.”

Frank says it might make sense to train a few employees, so if ICE comes, the employees can connect with an immigration lawyer to verify the validity of any ICE documents. One detail she makes sure to add is that warrants should be specific.

“It could be like we have a warrant to search for Michael Jones at this work site, which means they can question Michael Jones, but not everybody,” she says. “And same with, like in a living situation or in a building, where they can have the right to enter the building to search for something specific. And there are multiple offices in my building, so they are entitled to enter the building to go into office No. 8, not office No. 6 or 13.”

Frank recommends ag businesses seek out training from a criminal defense attorney or a criminal prosecutor with experience in unlawful search and seizure rules as well as the right to representation.

She also says it’s important for ag business owners to consider communicating when a potential or official ICE raid takes place. Is a grower comfortable sharing it within the community? How about the media? What about to representatives and legislators?

Questions, Frank says to consider in creating a plan for a potential ICE raid are:

To what extent do we demarcate our land as private?
Who is going to be on site to receive those requests for entry?
What criteria will we use to grant entry?
Who is authorized to make that decision, taking into account your own physical space, your own workspace, your staffing and your employee situation and your own risk profile?

A Sigh of Relief? Trump Orders Pause on ICE Raids of Farms, Meatpacking Plants

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:58:53 GMT

President Donald Trump is reportedly ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ) to pause raids on farms and meatpacking plants, softening the potential blow to industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor. The news comes after a week of ICE seemingly targeting dairy farms, California produce farms and a meat packing plant in Nebraska.

New York Times first reported on Thursday Trump said he would issue an order soon to address the effects of his immigration crackdown on the country’s farm and hotel industries, which rely heavily on immigrant labor. According to reports, the new directive still allows for investigations into serious crimes such as human trafficking.

“We will follow the president’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told “U.S. Farm Report” in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security and top White House officials continue to say that ICE is targeting “criminals” and “criminal illegal aliens.” However, as more dairy farms and a meat production plant were targeted, that called into question if it’s just criminals ICE was targeting.

Recent Raids on Farms and Meatpacking Plants

The raid on Glenn Valley Foods, a meat production plant in Omaha, Neb., drew national attention. That raid is what the Department of Homeland Security called the “largest worksite enforcement operation” in the state during the Trump presidency.

Glenn Valley Foods was founded in 2009 by Gary Rohwer, and according to their website they sell steak, chicken and corned beef products to restaurants and grocery stores. Rohwer said he was surprised by the raid and had followed the rules regarding immigration status. The plant used E-Verify, a federal database used for checking employees’ immigration status. But the warrant by ICE officials that said they had identified 107-people who they believed were using fraudulent documents.

Congressman Don Bacon, R-Neb., told local media 75 to 80 people were detained, but four people were also arrested for assaulting ICE agents during the operation. Officials say an investigation is ongoing and additional arrests could be forthcoming, authorities said.

“While carrying out an enforcement operation in Omaha, Nebraska an illegal alien from Honduras threatened federal officers and agents with a box cutter. These are the type of threats and assaults our brave law enforcement face every day as they put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens,” McLauglin also said in a statement to Farm Journal. “Our ICE enforcement officers and agents are facing a 413% increase in assaults against them. Thankfully, no ICE law enforcement was hurt in this operation. The operation was successful and resulted in the arrest of 76 illegal aliens. This was the largest worksite enforcement operation in Nebraska under the Trump administration.”

It’s not just meatpacking plants that saw increased ICE presence last week. Immigration officials also continue to visit dairy farms across the country. There were reports of raids from South Dakota to New Mexico.

@HSIElPaso executed a search warrant at Outlook Dairy Farms in NM & arrested 11 illegal aliens for violations of fraud & misuse of visas, permits & other documents. 1 was previously removed from the US, 9 banned from the US. LeaCountySO HSILasCruces HSI Roswell #EROElPaso #WSE pic.twitter.com/PzLKBJIdQE
— HSI El Paso (@HSIElPaso) June 4, 2025

ICE shared a photo on X saying it executed a search warrant at “Outlook Dairy Farms” in Lovington, N.M. Officials say they arrested 11 people for violations of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents, including nine who investigators say were already banned from the U.S.

The owner of the dairy farm told the Albuquerque Journal that the people arrested supplied him with false paperwork and that following an audit before the raid he’d been required to fire 24 other workers on the farm.

Worries were starting to mount as ICE raids ramped up on dairy farms, according to DairyHerd.com .

By the Numbers: A Heavy Reliance on Immigrant Labor

The news this week of the Trump administration putting a pause on raids of farms and meat processors is welcome news for those in agriculture. From dairies and produce farms, to meatpacking plants across the U.S., those are sectors that rely heavily on immigrant labor.

Immigrant labor makes up a substantial portion of the meat processing workforce, with estimates ranging from 37% to over 50%; however, states like South Dakota and Nebraska have even higher concentrations of immigrant workers in meat processing, reaching 58% and 66%, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute

And a large portion of U.S. dairy farms rely on immigrant labor, with estimates indicating that over half of all dairy workers are immigrants. Specifically, these workers account for 51% of the total dairy workforce and are responsible for producing 79% of the U.S. milk supply.

Farmworker Justice estimates 70% of the produce industry’s farmworkers are immigrants. USDA’s estimates are lower, estimating that number is closer to 60%.

Ripple Effect of Immigration Crackdown

No matter the exact number, it’s clear agriculture- and the produce industry- relies on an immigrant workforce. According to an exclusive report by Farm Journal’s The Packer , the ripple effect of Trump’s immigration crackdown on agriculture could be far-reaching, if the administration revives its focus on ag.

Kevin Kelly is CEO of Emerald Packaging, which is the largest flexible packaging supplier to the leafy greens industry and based in Union City, Calif. The company has been in the packaging business for 62 years, and says the immigrant workforce in California is feeling uncertain and afraid.

“We’ve certainly heard that folks aren’t turning up to work in the fields, and we’ve seen it in our facility. And we verify everybody, so we know everybody in our facility is documented and can legally work in the United States,” Kelly tells Jennifer Strailey, editor of The Packer. “In our case, it’s brothers and sisters being deported, and other family members being afraid, and our employees staying home to help their family members move, to take care of them or to take them to see an attorney, that kind of thing.”

In an early morning raid, ICE agents are seen chasing farmworkers through an Oxnard field. The raids coming as the federal gov't ramps up immigration enforcement in SoCal. Continuing coverage of the ICE raids, protests and unrest - Tonight at 11 from ABC7. https://t.co/bSJpCk8byb pic.twitter.com/oQQismAu2j
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) June 11, 2025

He says there’s an irony taking place, as some of their employees voted for the current administration with the assumption only criminals would be targeted in an immigration crackdown. But he says “that’s clearly not what’s happening.” He says harvesting lettuce is back-breaking work, and it’s work that they can only find immigrant labor to do.

“We should be handing them gold stars, not throwing them out of the country,” Kelly says.

Kelly adds that half of the nation’s farm labor is undocumented. That includes electricians, plumbers and welders that the U.S. all relies on.

“And now it’s suddenly occurring to us that we rely on them?” he says.

The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), a national association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint, recently sent a letter to the Trump administratio n.

“The Council and our members are encouraged by President Trump’s recent comments recognizing the critical importance of the agricultural workforce. His comments are spot on. After years of being subjected to pejorative policies that ignored the realities of rural America and often demonized those living and working in those communities, the President’s comments are a welcome change of pace: we must protect our Farmers,” NCAE stated in the letter.

NCAE also said “he success or failure of America’s hardworking farmers and ranchers largely depends upon their ability to find ready, willing, able, and qualified labor to help them complete the countless tasks it takes to grow food to feed the nation and the world.”

Why Can’t Congress Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform

It’s evident immigration reform is a major issue for agriculture. No matter who you talk to in agriculture, if they use any part of the immigration system, they will tell you it’s broken.

With an inadequate immigration system in the U.S., why can’t it be fixed? According to agricultural economists surveyed in Farm Journal’s Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor , it’s too political.

One economist said, “Immigration reform is a huge issue for the U.S. economy and must be addressed. However, it is so politically sensitive that very few Senators or Congressmen are willing to push the issue.”

“Congress has a vested interest in keeping this issue unresolved in the current partisan environment,” said another economist.

“Getting anything started and passed in an election year will be tough, let alone something as confrontational as immigration,” was another economists’ response.

Greater border enforcement and mass deportations were two major pledges made by Trump as he campaigned to reclaim the White House. But as Congress continues to debate Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” immigration reform doesn’t seem to be on Congress’ near-term agenda.

Your Next Reads:

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Farm Bureau of Ventura County Denounces ICE Raids as Threat to Farmworkers, Food Supply

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:40:38 GMT

The Farm Bureau of Ventura County said in a news release that the organization strongly condemns the actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Oxnard on June 10 in Oxnard, Calif. The Farm Bureau of Ventura County, which represents hundreds of farmers, ranchers and agricultural businesses across the region, said ICE agents attempted to enter a local packing facility without a judicial warrant and conducted operations in ag fields and initiated vehicle stops frequented by agriculture workers commuting to job sites.

“The conduct of ICE this morning, marked by racial profiling, intimidation and attempts to enter private property without judicial authorization, constitutes an unacceptable escalation,” the organization said in the release. “This approach undermines constitutional rights and directly threatens the integrity of California’s agricultural economy.”

The organization said it urges swift action at the local, state and federal levels to safeguard farmworkers and ensure the continuity of the state’s agricultural industry.

“Let us be unequivocal: racial profiling is illegal. Intimidation is not enforcement,” the organization said. “Using fear to destabilize the workforce that powers our farms is a reckless and short-sighted tactic with far-reaching consequences. These actions erode community trust, disrupt harvests, and impose undue strain on operations large and small. When our workforce is afraid, fields go unharvested, packinghouses fall behind, and market supply chains, from local grocery stores to national retailers, are affected. This impacts every American who eats.”

The Farm Bureau of Ventura County also said these workers support the county’s $2 billion agricultural economy, and the industry cannot function without the contributions of the ag workforce. These workers, the organization said, are skilled professionals and bring strong experience and work ethic to the county’s fields.

“Their labor is the reason our region is recognized as one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world,” the organization said. “Farm Bureau members care deeply about their workers, not as abstract labor, but as human beings and valued community members who deserve dignity, safety and respect. Ventura County agriculture depends on them. California’s economy depends on them. America’s food system depends on them.”

The Farm Bureau of Ventura County said in the release that it urges the following local actions:

Law enforcement agencies must be trained on their constitutional responsibilities, including the right to decline unlawful orders from ICE, CBP or other federal entities. The defense of “I was just following orders” is neither legally nor morally sufficient. Officers must be empowered to uphold civil liberties, not violate them.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office should implement a policy to notify the Rapid Response Network (RRN) when ICE operations occur, similar to how fire departments notify the Red Cross during house fires. RRN offers legal assistance, emergency support and trauma-informed care to affected families, providing essential resources to maintain community stability.
The organization also recommends the county train designated staff who work throughout the county, such as Weights and Measures and Ag Commissioner staff to serve as legal observers during ICE operations. The presence of trained observers, who document and question from a safe distance, has been shown to deter unlawful detentions and reduce instances of racial profiling.

The organization listed several state actions, calling on California’s assembly members and State Senators to seek:

Standardized training for local agencies
Stronger limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement
Prohibitions against data-sharing or indirect involvement in ICE operations

And the organization listed several federal actions, calling on federal representatives to:

Conduct immediate investigations into ICE activity in Ventura County
Withhold funding from operations that violate constitutional protections
Take legislative steps to reduce the militarization of immigration enforcement in agricultural communities

Trump Suggests Farmers Could Petition to Keep Workers Without Legal Status

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 14:29:25 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that farmers will be able to petition the federal government to retain some farmworkers in the U.S. illegally, provided the workers leave the country and return with legal status.

Trump’s comments during his Cabinet meeting are, though vague, the most detail the administration has provided on the fate of the nation’s farmworkers without legal status — who make up half the farm sector’s workforce — under his plan for mass deportations.

Farm industry groups have warned that deporting large numbers of agricultural workers would grind the food system to a halt. In addition to farming, many workers without legal status are also employed in the meat and dairy industries.

“We’re going to work with farmers that, if they have strong recommendations for their farms, for certain people, that we’re going to let them stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process. We have to take care of our farmers and hotels and various places where they need the people,” Trump said.

“A farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people saying, they’re great, they’re working hard, we’re going to slow it down a little bit for them and then we’re going to ultimately bring them back. They’ll go out, they’re going to come back as legal workers,” he said.

The White House and the Department of Agriculture did not respond to requests to clarify the policy or when it will be implemented.

During his first administration, Trump promised the farm sector that deportations would not affect agricultural workers, but has made no such promise in this term.

Immigrant farmworkers prepared for the Trump administration by assigning guardians to their children in the case of their detention and taking other precautions.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Labor contractor sentenced for forced labor conspiracy of H-2A workers

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:37:36 GMT

Bladimir Moreno, owner of farm labor contracting business Los Villatoros Harvesting LLC, has been sentenced for leading a federal racketeering and forced labor conspiracy that targeted Mexican H-2A agricultural workers in the U.S. between 2015 and 2017, the Department of Justice recently announced.

On Dec. 29, U.S. District Court Judge Charlene Edward Honeywell of the Middle District of Florida sentenced Moreno to 118 months in prison along with three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay over $175,000 in restitution to the victims.

According to court documents, Moreno owned, operated and managed LVH — a farm labor contracting company that brought large numbers of temporary, seasonal Mexican workers into the U.S. on H-2A agricultural visas — as a criminal enterprise. According to the Justice Department, Moreno compelled victims to work in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia and North Carolina, and he also engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity that included visa fraud and fraud in foreign labor contracting.

“Human trafficking, including forced labor campaigns that exploit vulnerable workers, is unlawful, immoral and inhumane,” the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a news release. “This defendant abused his power as a business owner to capitalize on the victims’ vulnerabilities and immigration status, luring those seeking a better quality of life with false promises of lawful work paying a fair wage.”

Moreno made false statements in applications to federal agencies for LVH to be granted temporary, H-2A agricultural workers, according to the release. Moreno and his co-conspirators also made false promises to Mexican farm workers themselves to encourage them to work for LVH and then later charged these workers inflated sums to come into the U.S. on H-2A visas, according to the Justice Department.

Once the immigrants arrived in the U.S., Moreno and his co-conspirators coerced over a dozen of them into providing long hours of physically demanding agricultural labor, six to seven days a week, for unreasonably little pay, according to the Justice Department, which said Moreno and his co-conspirators used various forms of coercion, including tactics such as:

Imposing debts on the workers.
Confiscating their passports.
Subjecting them to crowded, unsanitary and degrading living conditions.
Harboring them in the U.S. after their visas had expired.
Threatening them with arrest and deportation if they failed to comply with demands.

“The defendant forced Mexican agricultural workers to labor under inhumane conditions, confiscated their passports, imposed exorbitant fees and debts, and threatened them with deportation or false arrest. The Department of Justice is committed to seeking justice for survivors of forced labor campaigns, holding perpetrators accountable and stripping wrongdoers of their illegal profits,” Clarke said in the release.

Later, to conceal the criminal enterprise from federal investigators, Moreno created and provided to investigators fraudulent records with falsified information about the workers’ pay and hours, and repeatedly made false statements to federal investigators, according to the Justice Department.

Stemming human trafficking in agriculture

“Forcing individuals to work against their will using abusive and coercive tactics is not only unconscionable but illegal,” U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida said in the release. “We will continue to work with our task force partners to combat human trafficking in all its forms, including prosecuting those who exploit vulnerable workers.”

The Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, investigated the case.

Related news: Congress fails to pass farm labor reforms in omnibus spending bill

The Task Force received assistance from the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General; the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division; the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service; the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; Colorado Legal Services’ Migrant Farm Worker Division; Legal Aid Services of Oregon’s Farmworker Program; and the Indiana Legal Services Worker Rights and Protection Project.

“This is not the first federal prosecution for forced labor that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has uncovered and helped investigate, but the thirteenth,” CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez told The Packer. “The truth is, modern-day slavery remains a systemic problem in agriculture, and that problem is only going to continue to grow with the expansion of the H-2A program. But the good news is, it is not a problem without a solution.”

Programs like the Fair Food Program could stem long-standing labor abuses like forced labor and sexual harassment, he continued.

“If all major buyers of produce were to join the Fair Food Program and require their suppliers to meet its basic human rights standards — just as all major buyers require their suppliers to meet basic food safety standards — the market for the produce harvested without regard to U.S. law and fundamental human rights would dry up overnight, and forced labor rings like that run by Bladimir Moreno and his associates would have nowhere to operate,” Benitez said.

Anyone can report information about human trafficking to the toll-free National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. The hotline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sentencing the conspirators

Moreno was charged in September 2021 and pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and conspiracy to commit forced labor, according to the release. Two of Moreno’s co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy under RICO, and a third co-defendant, Guadalupe Mendes, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation, the Justice Department said. They were sentenced in October 2022.

Efrain Cabrera Rodas, a citizen of Mexico who worked for LVH as a recruiter, manager and supervisor, received 41 months in prison. Christina Gamez, a U.S. citizen who worked for LVH as a bookkeeper, manager and supervisor, received 37 months in prison. Mendes, a U.S. citizen who worked for LVH as a manager and supervisor, received eight months of home detention and a $5,500 fine to be paid over 24 months of supervised release, according to the release.

Assistant Attorney General Clarke, U.S. Attorney Handberg and Acting Special Agent in Charge DeWitt announced the sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilyssa Spergel for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Avner Shapiro, Maryam Zhuravitsky and Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

Congress fails to pass farm labor reforms in omnibus spending bill

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 15:56:05 GMT

Fighting the final hours of 2022 and the lame duck session of Congress, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., took the floor on Monday, urging his colleagues to pass the Affordable and Secure Food Act.

The bill would have reformed and streamlined the current H-2A visa program, provided a path to citizenship and set wage standards that would have provided much-needed wage stability; however, it did not garner the bipartisan support it needed to pass in the Senate in the omnibus spending bill.

“Congress has once again failed to deliver the reforms that the fresh produce industry and its agricultural allies have long fought for. IFPA did its part to reach an agreement with advocates for our workers and garnered bipartisan support for compromise legislation,” International Fresh Produce Association Chief Policy Officer Robert Guenther said in a news release. “Additionally, IFPA joined with hundreds of agriculture organizations actively supporting the bill and pushing Senate leadership to bring up the Affordable and Secure Food Act.”

Related news: Passage of bipartisan farm labor bill would be a ‘Christmas miracle’

Despite the setback, fresh produce industry advocates remain committed to leading the push for Congress to reform immigration for the agriculture and food industry.

“Congress missed a huge opportunity and did not do their part to improve production and increase the legal supply of labor. Because of this inaction, consumers will continue to see record prices at the grocery store, producers will continue to face unaffordable, unpredictable input costs from out-of-control wage hikes, and we will continue down the path to being a nation that is increasingly food insecure. We implore the Senate to not walk away from this effort before they adjourn,” Guenther said in the release.

Call to reform goes unmet

In Bennet’s speech, the senator drew attention to the broken system and current immigration and farm labor crisis.

“Today, America’s farmers and ranchers are short more than 100,000 workers — all across this country — to plant seeds, to pick berries, to raise cattle, and do the hard, essential work of feeding this country,” Bennet said in his speech to Congress. “It’s why growers across America are banging down the doors of this Capitol, pleading with us, to fix the broken H-2A system for farm workers. It is obvious to everybody — who’s had anything to do with this system — that it’s completely broken. There is no argument that could be made that it’s not.”

Bennet urged Congress to address the conditions that farm workers currently experience without protections or legal status, calling the current situation “hopelessly, embarrassingly outdated.”

“We don’t have to accept hundreds of thousands of people living in the shadows, when they work every single day — they’re breaking their backs, and I don’t use that term lightly, working in some of the worst conditions that there are to work in — to feed the American people. To give us economic security and food security and provide for our national security,” said Bennet. “And we shouldn’t accept crushing food prices for families just because this Congress can’t reform an antiquated H-2A program. And we can do something about this this week before we go home with this proposal.”

Watch Bennet’s full speech on the floor of the Senate.

Passage of bipartisan farm labor bill would be a 'Christmas miracle'

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 19:06:22 GMT

On Dec. 15, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., with support from Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, presented a rarity to the Senate — a bipartisan farm labor bill.

The challenge now is to negotiate a Senate version of the Affordable and Secure Food Act that can go to a floor vote in the final days of 2022 — no small feat. Bennet said negotiating a farm labor bill in the lame duck session of Congress would be “a Christmas miracle,” but Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers, is holding out hope.

“Stranger things have happened in Congress,” Puglia told The Packer.

According to Puglia, passing the bill would be “a lift for both parties.” At least 10 Republicans would have to step forward for the bill to pass, but every sector that has a labor need is in strong support, he said. The bill passed in the House with votes from 30 Republicans and all but one Democrat.

“We have an obligation to push and fight until the final bell,” Puglia said.

The promise of reform

While long-term farm labor problems persist, additional challenges in recent years — such as inflation and supply chain issues — have exacerbated financial strains on farmers and ranchers and raised the temperature on existing labor issues.

“Businesses need certainty, and these wage reforms will provide that. My members are trying to survive; they’re not in this to lose money and can’t afford to bleed out every year,” Puglia said. “This bill would put guardrails on labor costs. Wages will be capped as to how much they can go up each year.”

The Affordable and Secure Food Act not only offers farm labor wage stabilization, but it also charts a path for legalization for the millions of undocumented workers who currently work in agriculture in the U.S. and streamlines the H2-A visa program. If enacted, the bill would address the precarious status of undocumented farm laborers currently working in the U.S.

“In the produce industry in the West, half of our workforce is not here legally. They are here working, productively paying taxes and keeping this industry running. For them, they live with the fear of not living in the shadows and of deportation,” said Puglia.

The Affordable and Secure Food Act proposes a new status of certified agriculture worker. This CAW status would offer a “degree of certainty for the agricultural workforce that they deserve,” according to Puglia.

“I have members of Western Growers that have moved to H2-A because they cannot find domestic workers,” he added. “This is a simple notion. We don’t have Americans knocking the door down wanting to harvest celery or lettuce.”

Decades advocating for change

“Western Growers has an awful lot of history and footprints in the sand that trace back on this bill,” Puglia told The Packer.

Former Western Growers president Tom Nassif, along with former United Farmworkers president Arturo Rodriguez, were key in bringing foundational farm labor reforms to Congress over a decade ago, said Puglia. The current bill has roots in Nassif and Rodriguez’s work over many years.

“Finally, Congress is addressing an issue we’ve been shouting from the rooftops for 15 years,” he said.

Harnessing industry support

What’s more, Puglia believes that with such a large and diverse produce industry, strong advocacy throughout could increase the likelihood of success.

“Friends in the dairy industry have helped broaden the political appeal to more Republican senators,” Puglia said. “We could have a louder call for this reform to be passed if it came from all sectors of the produce and food industry.”

Related news: Pandemic can’t slow the growth of the H-2A program, USDA report says

In the fresh produce industry, several organizations have joined in support of the bill. The U.S. Apple Association was one organization that joined advocates on Capitol Hill.

“Apple growers from coast to coast are hanging on by a thread as labor as input costs spiral out of control,” Jim Bair, U.S. Apple Association president and CEO, said in a news release. “The reforms included in the Affordable and Secure Food Act would provide much needed stability and certainty for the agriculture workforce and predictability to the H-2A program. In short, it is good for both growers and workers. We thank Senator Bennet for bringing this proposal forward and urge the Senate to act swiftly.”

Ian LeMay, president of California Fresh Fruit Association, also offered his support, thanking Bennet for introducing the bill.

“The agricultural industry in California and across the country prides itself on being able to provide a safe and secure food supply to the nation and the world. However, this can only be accomplished with a dependable workforce. There is no doubt that agriculture has waited many years for immigration reform, and we are optimistic that this bill will finally accomplish this goal,” said LeMay in the release.

The time is right to lean in and push for the bill’s passage now, said Puglia at Western Growers. If the Affordable and Secure Food Act doesn’t pass in the last weeks of 2022, it could be an uphill battle to address this issue with the new Congress.

“I’m concerned with restarting this issue with a Republican House in 2023 with the current border crisis,” said Puglia. “Lack of labor and border security both deserve Congress’ attention, but prospects in both houses are difficult next year.”

Affordable and Secure Food Act Highlights

Certified agricultural workers and path to citizenship

Undocumented agricultural workers could apply for certified agricultural worker status to work legally in the U.S.
CAW candidates would not be at risk of deportation while applications are in review. Additionally, employers would not be penalized for having hired these workers.
If approved, CAW certification would give workers 5½ years of legal residency for themselves and dependents, with the potential for extension.
CAW workers who meet additional residency and work history requirements would be eligible to apply for permanent legal U.S. residency and citizenship.

Streamline and enhance H2-A

Those who don’t qualify for CAW status would receive access to year-round H-2A visas.
Workers would not have to return to their home country to apply for an H-2A visa.
The H-2A process is streamlined for employers.
Housing for farmworkers and transportation in and out of fields is addressed.
H2-A workers would be free to leave one employer for another.
Additional H2-A worker protections include guaranteed minimum hours as well as health and safety plans to avoid serious on-the-job injuries and heat illness.

Additional features

Wage standards set for agricultural workers across the board.
Establishes wage increase limits, capping year over year increases at 3% to 4%, a long-term tool to stabilize labor costs.
E-verify will be mandatory for all agricultural workers.

Farmworker wages up 7% from last year, according to USDA Farm Labor Survey

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:31:35 GMT

Hired farmworkers play a critical role in U.S. agriculture while making up less than 1% of all U.S. workers, according to a recent USDA report.

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service tracks the farmworker labor force and, on Nov. 23, it released its biannual Farm Labor Survey results report sharing wage data from the past year.

Not only does this survey report on hired farm labor trends, demographics and regional variances, but the Farm Labor Survey tracks changes in income that will be used to inform H-2A worker wages in the U.S.

The top finding from the report is that, in the past five years, farm wages grew at 2.9% per year. This increase is consistent with growers’ reports that workers were harder than usual to find, according to the USDA report.

Other takeaways of the Farm Labor Survey include:

Hired worker wages were up by 2% and gross wage rate increased 7% from 2021.
Farm operators paid workers an average gross wage of $17.72 an hour, up 7% from the same week in 2021.
Inflation-adjusted wages for nonsupervisory crop and livestock workers (excluding contract labor) rose at an average annual rate of 1.1% per year between 1990 and 2022.
Across all farm types, labor costs averaged around 10% in the last two decades.

Although farm wages are rising in real terms, the impact of these gains on farmers’ incomes have been offset by productivity and output prices, according to the USDA.

Concerns about implications for H-2A

H-2A wage changes are updated through the Department of Labor’s Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) for 2023, which sources its data from the Farm Labor Survey. While recommending wage increases for H-2A farm workers is good news for some, not everyone agrees with the increase.

The International Fresh Produce Association favors stopping wage increases to H-2A workers through legislative reform, according to a recent news release. Further, the organization champions the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which proposes putting an annual cap on increases to the AEWR.

“Today’s release of the Farm Labor Survey by the USDA should be a clarion call from the fresh produce industry on why Congress must act this year on agriculture immigration reform legislation,” Robert Guenther, IFPA’s chief public policy officer, said in the release. “For the last two years, ramping up to the 2022 congressional mid-terms, we have heard so much rhetoric from our elected officials about the rising cost of food and inflation taking off. Next week, Congress has the ability to stop this unaffordable and unacceptable increase in wages that will cripple producers who are already suffering from high inflation.”

Related news: Pandemic can’t slow the growth of the H-2A program, USDA report says

The AEWR is determined by a formula by the Department of Labor, intended to protect the domestic workforces from having wages depressed by foreign agricultural workers. IFPA believes that this data does not reflect true wage cost for those who use the H-2A program.

“When Congress returns after the Thanksgiving holiday, they can put a stop to this assault on our members and the fresh produce industry by passing much needed immigration reform which will not only help the farmers who grow our food, but the consumers who buy it,” Guenther said.

Ag Groups Urge Biden Administration to Grant Travel Exemptions to South African H-2A Farm Workers

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 21:05:59 GMT

More than 60 agricultural organizations are urging the Biden administration to grant exemptions for H-2A farm workers in the recent travel restrictions placed on South Africa.

American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and more than 60 other ag groups telling the Biden Administration on Monday the nearly 7,000 South African farm workers should be exempted from restrictions related to the Omicron variant.

Currently, entry is limited to only those that are fully vaccinated. The groups say workers should be able to travel directly to the U.S. and be vaccinated here with a CDC approved vaccine if they desire.

The groups also say that many of these H-2A workers come with a unique skill set and U.S. operations are counting on their timely arrival to make plans for the upcoming season.

Would More Legal Immigration Help the White House Fight Inflation? Mexico's President is Now Pushing For It

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 20:42:26 GMT

President Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will hold a bilateral meeting Tuesday as both administrations face a surge in migration. They are expected to announce multiyear, joint projects to modernize border infrastructure, senior administration officials said. They will also direct their teams to create a task force to combat criminal organizations and curb the flow of fentanyl, the U.S. officials said, as well as a working group focused on labor, migration pathways and worker protections.

How about this to fight inflation: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will use his White House visit this week to urge President Biden to allow more legal immigration, which he says would help curb inflation. Last month, Mexican Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, said that 300,000 new temporary work visas would be announced at today’s summit, although the U.S. side has made no mention of it. Meanwhile, arrests at the U.S./Mexico border are continuing to increase and reached record highs in May when the U.S. Border Patrol reported 220,000 apprehensions. That figure included 77,000 Mexicans and was driven upward by a high number of repeat attempts (nearly 25% of the total) making it the highest monthly total since March 2000. Also, 26 of the 53 migrants who recently died after being abandoned by smugglers in a semitrailer in Texas were Mexican.

U.S. officials want López Obrador to retreat on his reliance on fossil fuels and his campaign to favor Mexico’s state-owned electricity utility at the expense of foreign-built plants powered by gas and renewable energy. Washington has filed several complaints under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade agreement pushing Mexico to enforce environmental laws and rules guaranteeing trade union rights.

López Obrador said he planned to speak to Biden about controlling inflation, immigration and security. He said a group of business leaders, including Carlos Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest citizen, would accompany him.

Title 42 Talks Continue with Biden at U.S./Mexico Border

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 14:30:32 GMT

President Biden traveled on Sunday to the U.S./Mexico border amid a surge in illegal border crossings. The president went to El Paso, Texas, which in December saw a surge of migration. His first stop was at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry, where the president toured the facility with border officials. He then stopped along the border fence that separates El Paso from Juárez, Mexico where he visited the El Paso County Migrant Services Support Center.

“They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them,” Biden told reporters.

To the dismay of some Democrats and immigration advocates, his plans rely on the resumption or expansion of several Trump-era policies that Biden has previously decried, including Title 42, the pandemic-era border measure that allows migrants seeking asylum to be quickly turned away. Biden was greeted at the airport by Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the president’s policies to reporters on Air Force One Sunday, saying the goal is to “incentivize a safe and orderly way and cut out the smuggling organizations.” He said Biden was traveling to the border because “he made a decision to see what the challenges are and to see how we responded to those challenges down in El Paso.”

The administration said last week it would use Title 42 to rapidly expel asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the countries whose migrants have posed the greatest challenge to the U.S. in the past year. It is taking the step even as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on the legality of Title 42 and the administration has argued that the measure is no longer justified on public-health grounds and must end.

The administration announced a new program for up to 30,000 migrants a month combined from the four countries to enter the U.S. legally. In the coming weeks, the administration plans to adopt an updated version of a different Trump-era policy known as the transit ban, which would make migrants at the border ineligible for asylum if they didn’t first seek protection in another country, such as Mexico, on their way to the U.S.

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California Fresh Fruit Association reacts to border security and immigration bill

Fri, 12 May 2023 18:46:34 GMT

On the heels of the expiring Title 42 immigration order, the U.S. House of Representatives voted May 11 to pass a border security and immigration bill that would to increase penalties for individuals who remained in the U.S. after their visas expired and would increase the number of Border Patrol agents along the U.S. and Mexico border.

The California Fresh Fruit Association issued a statement responding to the House vote on H.R. 2, also known as the Secure the Border Act of 2023.

“Make no mistake, the California Fresh Fruit Association has long acknowledged that we have a broken immigration system here in the United States. But this is not an issue that we can piecemeal our way through,” association President Ian LeMay said in a news release. “H.R. 2 does nothing to help U.S. agriculture and instead throws a longstanding foe in E-Verify in our faces.”

Related news: Florida governor signs tough immigration law

May said in the release that Congress has long known that they must first address both the current agriculture workforce and modernize guest worker programs to meet future needs — and only then can U.S. agriculture interests support an E-Verify policy.

“We would like to thank Congressman John Duarte (CA-13) for voting “no” on this measure,” LeMay said in the release. “The Congressman understands the pressures before our industry and the realities that exist within his district. His call for both sides of the [aisle] to finally tackle the issue of immigration reform comprehensively is right, and we stand with him to advocate for a policy that does just that.”

CFFA will continue to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, just as it did in 2013 with the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act and more recently in 2022 with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, according to the release.

North American Blueberry Council praises reintroduction of Farm Workforce Modernization Act

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 13:50:54 GMT

The recent reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act is welcome news to the North American Blueberry Council, an organization representing the U.S. and Canadian blueberry sector.

The bill was reintroduced by Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), John Duarte (R-Calif.), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

“The agriculture industry faces unique employment challenges that have been left unaddressed for far too long,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the NABC, said in a statement. “Specialty crops — like blueberries — require a skilled and flexible workforce to remain competitive globally, and the H-2A guest worker program is not structured to meet these needs.”

Related news: Produce advocates press Congress about next farm bill

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act is a vital piece of legislation that will streamline the H-2A program and create a critical, agriculture-specific merit-based visa program, Cronquist continued.

“This bipartisan legislation will help address the worker shortages we see across the blueberry industry, provide relief from burdensome fees placed on our farmers and reduce the time spent on bureaucratic processes, allowing farmers to focus on their operations,” she said in the statement.

NABC applauds the representatives for their leadership and urges Congress to pass the legislation to provide much-needed support for America’s agriculture industry, Cronquist added.

Will Border Security Issues Force Congress To Take Action On Immigration Reform? Ag Economists Say It's Unlikely

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 14:45:25 GMT

The debate over immigration and border policies continues to be a point of contention in Washington. With a renewed push by the GOP to address illegal border crossings, and the White House emphasizing the need to allocate more than $13 billion to manage the increase of migrants into the U.S., the topic as at the forefront of policy discussion once again. However, ag economists are still skeptical immigration reform will finally see movement in Washington.

In the October Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor, a survey of nearly 70 ag economists from across the U.S., economists were asked if they expected to see any movement on immigration reform in 2024. Nearly 83% of respondents said no. Just over 8% said yes, with the remaining economists, or just over 8%, unsure about the outcome in 2024.

Of the overwhelming number of economists who said they don’t think Congress will move on immigration reform in 2024, the reasons included:

Election year in 2024 will stall potential legislation, although it might be a focus during campaigns.
Political gridlock and competing priorities make a bipartisan solution unlikely, especially with a sensitive issue like immigration reform.

The biggest hurdle, according to respondents, is the fact it’s an election year, as well as how controversial the issue is. One economist even called it “politically unpopular.”

“Congress has a vested interest in keeping this issue unresolved in the current partisan environment,” responded an economist in the latest survey.

Another economist said, “Getting anything started and passed in an election year will be tough, let alone something as confrontational as immigration.”

A different economist in the October survey said immigration reform won’t happen because, “Too many other issues to happen first. Congress and the administration are too far apart to find an acceptable resolution. Legislators don’t have the fortitude to address it.”

However, one economist who thinks Congress may address immigration reform in 2024 said their response is due to the fact that “Right to Shelter will be rescinded in certain major cities that have reached the breaking point.”

It’s evident immigration reform is a major issue for agriculture. One economist said, “Immigration reform is a huge issue for the U.S. economy and MUST be addressed. However, it is so politically sensitive that very few Senators or Congressmen are willing to push the issue.”

Ag Labor Void

The survey also asked economists if they thought U.S. agriculture will be able to utilize the influx of immigrants at the southern border to fill the void in ag labor. While the feedback was mixed, most were not confident due to mismatched skills and what they called ‘noise’ in the system. Other economists indicated that some of that labor could possibly be used, particularly for specialty crops like fruits and vegetables.

“The ‘immigration problem’ at the Mexican border is a humanitarian problem, as well as an immigration issue,” said one economist. “Many of the new immigrants entering at the Mexican border are being moved to the East or West Coast. It will be hard for ag to access this potential workforce.”

What Will It Take for Congress to Take Action on Immigration Reform?

As the issue continues to draw criticism and debate, economists were asked: what’s the one thing that would need to happen in order for Congress to take action on immigration reform in the next couple of years? While sentiments were largely pessimistic on any action, some economists think increased pressure from labor markets could prompt Congress to take action.

One economist said “cooler minds” is what it would take for Congress to find compromise.

“A perceived crisis where both parties can agree on a solution. In other words, a very unlikely situation,” said another economist.

Another economist said, “Elect smart people.” While one economist in the anonymous survey said, “One part would need to gain total control.”

Another economist thinks the only way to find a solution is to, “Separate ag labor from broader immigration discussion.”

A Bipartisan Issue?

According to Farm Journal Washington correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer, Republicans are currently pushing for changes in immigration policies aimed at deterring illegal border crossings. He says they want to address border security issues and make it more difficult for migrants to enter the U.S. without proper documentation.

At the same time, Wiesemeyer reports Democrats, including President Joe Biden, emphasize the need to allocate $13.6 billion to manage the increasing number of migrant arrivals. They argue that this funding is essential to address the current challenges at the border.

“The debate over immigration is causing tensions in Congress, particularly as it relates to funding for Ukraine and other foreign aid initiatives. There is a risk that disagreements over immigration policies could lead to delays or the derailment of government spending and aid packages,” reports Wiesemeyer.

He also points out that Democrats are facing pressure to compromise on immigration, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledging to link a substantial border package to aid for Ukraine. He says Senate Republicans are also seeking to incorporate policy changes in an emergency funding discussion with some Republicans advocating for bipartisan efforts to address border security.

“They are proposing changes to asylum policies, including raising the bar for ‘credible fear’ claims and reinstating the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy for asylum-seekers,” says Wiesemeyer.

He also reports key Democrats are opposed to Republican demands on immigration policy changes, as they doubt the possibility of reaching a workable middle ground during time-sensitive funding negotiations. But some Democratic lawmakers, such as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), express a willingness to address border security issues but reject “draconian” policy ideas that could harm migrants. They seek more humane solutions.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) urged colleagues to focus on measures that already have bipartisan support, such as increasing the number of border patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, which align with President Biden’s request. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) indicated a willingness to consider any bipartisan border proposal put forward by the Senate.

New ag seasonal platform manager offers support for farmers and temporary farmworkers

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:16:14 GMT

Working with agriculture staffing solution partners throughout the U.S., technology platform H2 Organizer announced its launch in mid-September.

MiChamba — the companion app to the H2 Organizer seasonal worker management platform — creates an experience for employers and H-2 visa workers to save time and maintain compliance, according to a news release.

The mobile app integrates H2 Organizer to better connect H-2 visa farmworkers with their sponsoring employers, the release said. MiChamba translates to “my work” and is a common reference to having legal papers for employment in the U.S.

It is available to workers through their employers with plans to expand availability in the future, according to the release.

H2 Organizer said the platform and MiChamba’s features include:

Digital onboarding — Simplify onboarding and training of H-2 and domestic workers.
Real-time locator — Track worker locations in real-time to optimize logistics.
Compliance software — Automatically track and alert on compliance issues and dates.
Pay cards — Provide secure, instant access to earnings with digital pay cards.
Human resources platform — Centralize all HR processes for H-2 visa workers in one platform.
Progressive discipline — Document issues by using the integrated progressive discipline workflow tools.
Messaging — Enable seamless, multilingual communication between employers and workers.
Ad hoc paperwork — Manage unexpected and discipline forms with flexible, on-demand templates.
Calendar — Create events for workers and show expiration dates of documents and deadlines.

“We built H2 Organizer to solve the challenge of having multiple technology platforms to manage an operation,” Cesar Martinez, chief strategy officer of H2 Organizer, said in the release. “Now growers can use one platform with an array of tools to manage incidents, process payroll and even deliver onboarding training. Farm workers prefer to communicate via mobile phones, so we developed a companion app, MiChamba, to give them a tool to streamline various services, like storing documents and communicating with management all in one spot.”

Designed by H2 visa experts with decades of experience in the industry, H2 Organizer will provide employers tools to stay in compliance, the release said.

“When it comes to being investigated by DOL Wage and Hour, one of the areas where many employers failed was producing credible records to prove their compliance with the program,” said Ruben Lugo, former regional agricultural enforcement coordinator for the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. “Adding technology to help H-2A employers stay organized and in compliance is a great tool, especially when designed by a company that has deep roots in the H-2A program and understands its challenges.”

While some platforms attempt to manage the entire process, H2 Organizer leaves the H-2 petitions and visa filing to trusted organizations where professionals can track and navigate visa applications and an ever-changing regulatory environment, the release said.

“Turning over your human resource management to [artificial intellilgence] is not worker-focused, but H2 Organizer is a people-centered solution for our members to streamline onboarding and communication with their employees,” Enrique Gastelum, CEO of WAFLA, said in the release. “We are proud to deliver innovative solutions to our members that can leverage technology without losing the personal touch of key H-2 service providers and employers.”

Partnering organizations WAFLA, Western Growers, and the Scaroni Family of Cos. serve thousands of members and help place tens of thousands of temporary workers on farms throughout the U.S. West, the release said.

“The H2 Organizer is a game-changer for Western Growers members navigating the complex, paper-heavy H-2A program,” said Jason Resnick, senior vice president and general counsel at Western Growers. “It streamlines everything from managing job orders and petitions to digitizing the entire onboarding process, allowing workers to complete their documentation in their native languages on their mobile devices. By automating compliance workflows and offering features like audit trails and automatic reminders, H2 Organizer helps employers stay organized and audit-ready. It’s an efficient, user-friendly solution that eliminates manual data entry and keeps everything in one accessible place.”

“We are proud to work with the H2 Organizer team,” David Scaroni, partner at the Scaroni Family of Cos. said in the release. “They have taken a problem solving approach to create a robust solution. Having a comprehensive and transparent tool that can meet the needs of recruiters and employers is really accomplishing something special.”

Reminder: Employers Must Now Use New I-9 Form

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:30:50 GMT

Ag employers must now use the revised I-9 Employment Eligibility Verfication form when hiring new workers, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Effective May 7, 2013, employers must ensure proper completion of the new form for each individual they hire.

Learn more about the rule at http://www.uscis.gov/I-9Central .

You can download the new form at http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 .

Trump Again Demands a Wall as Lawmakers Chase Immigration Deal

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:28:57 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he’s not backing down on funding a border wall in any immigration deal as lawmakers from both parties were rushing to cobble together an agreement that can survive hardliners’ opposition and win bipartisan support.

“It’s got to include the wall,” Trump said at a news conference Wednesday where he was asked if he would sign immigration legislation that didn’t provide funding to begin building a physical barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. “Security is number one, so the answer is you have to have the wall.”

Lawmakers involved in the negotiations shuttled between the House and Senate seeking accord on legislation that would give protection against deportation to some 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, while also meeting Trump’s conditions of tighter border security, restrictions on family preferences in immigration and an end to a diversity visa lottery.

An immigration agreement could open the way to a broad spending bill, which in turn could carry disaster relief funds, legislation stabilizing Obamacare and other measures that stalled in December.

Hurdles Remain

Democrats have been insisting that any immigration compromise be part of a spending deal, which is needed to keep the government open after Jan. 19, and that remains major hurdle. Lawmakers also haven’t reached a consensus on border security and the other terms set by Trump, while a group of conservative Republicans in the House were pushing for a deal with tighter restrictions on immigration.

While Trump has never wavered in his demand to build the wall, he told a group of lawmakers from both parties at the White House on Tuesday that he’d go along with whatever they hammer out.

“I will be signing it,” Trump told them. “I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.’”

Despite Trump’s record as an unpredictable negotiating partner who sometimes switches positions, members of both parties expressed optimism that they had room to negotiate.

“Oh yeah, we’re close,” Arizona Republican Jeff Flake said after leaving a meeting of a bipartisan group of senators who have been working on an immigration compromise for weeks.

Judge’s Ruling

Republican and Democratic leaders said that a ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday that temporarily blocked Trump’s decision to terminate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative won’t hold back the effort to write the program into the law.

Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor Wednesday that the court decision “in no way diminishes the urgency of resolving the DACA issue.” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas agreed, telling reporters he’s determined to help set up a timetable for further bipartisan negotiations that will also involve top administration officials.

“My sense is that it doesn’t change the need for us to act, so we’re going forward,” Cornyn said.

Cornyn set up a meeting Wednesday with No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland to talk about a timetable for negotiations. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will also be part of the talks, he said.

Durbin, who also is part of the bipartisan Senate group, expressed concern that there was so little time left to get an agreement before the Jan. 19 deadline for a funding measure. He wouldn’t say whether that meant an increased risk of a partial government shutdown if there’s no deal on immigration, but said the group is moving closer to agreement.

“We still have some work to do, but we have made real progress,” Durbin said.

Hoyer, who was at the White House meeting with Trump on Tuesday, said despite support for finding a legislative fix for DACA from Trump and other Republicans, “There were obviously items that were listed on which there clearly is disagreement.”

Among those are how extensive a border wall might be included, and how much to restrict family preferences for immigration, which Trump calls chain migration.

Wall Proposal

A Homeland Security proposal to spend $18 billion over 10 years for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, including 722 miles of new and replacement barriers, was circulated last week and immediately rejected by Democrats.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, called the wall plan a “last-century solution.”

But what a “wall” would look like has been the subject of debate among Republicans. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican, told reporters Monday that “a wall can be defined in a lot of different ways.”

With Republicans holding just 51 of 100 Senate seats, at least nine Democratic votes are needed to push a deal through that chamber, and that gives Schumer leverage.

“Senator Schumer basically has a veto card” on government spending and immigration, said Representative Chris Collins, a New York Republican and close Trump ally.

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