For nearly a century, the United States has relied on migrant workers to grow and harvest the vegetables and fruits that end up in the country’s grocery stores and feed millions of consumers. But the future of this workforce of 2.5 million people, critical to agriculture, is uncertain under the new Trump administration’s immigration policy.
At least 40% of farmworkers employed in U.S. farms are unauthorized to work, according to national surveys from the Department of Labor. Because they either entered the country illegally or are under expired visas, workers and farm employers are threatened by the “mass deportation” promises of President-elect Donald Trump.
Agricultural employers, already facing challenges to recruit enough workers, could be forced to depend even more on an imperfect and costly visa program called H-2A.
About 80% of all farmworkers were born in Mexico. Some have become residents and nationalized, and others continue to work without papers. But regardless of immigration status, fewer people are willing to take farm jobs. Many seek year-round, better-paid, and less strenuous work; others are retiring or are not sought by employers due to their age.
Fruit and vegetable growers have lost tons of food because they don’t have enough farm hands. After nearly two decades of a critical labor shortage, they turned to the H-2A visa program to keep their operations running. The popularity and demand of the visa program have grown exponentially.
“I think the H-2A program will continue to expand until something better is offered,” said John Boelts, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau and a fresh produce grower.
In Arizona, the demand for the program is among the highest in the country. Agricultural companies and contractors requested nearly 13,000 people to come for work in Arizona between July and September of 2024. That is about a third of all the H-2A workers that come in a year to the state.
The growth of the program is expected to continue during the second Trump administration, even though his plans for the visa program are not clear yet.
What Arizona cities receive the most workers?
Arizona farm owners employ H-2A workers to plant, weed, thin, harvest, and pack crops, but also to operate machinery, do construction work, drive bus crews, repair and run irrigation systems, and herd livestock.
While nearly 40% of H-2A workers arrive in Arizona in the winter months, the peak of vegetable and leafy greens season, at any given time there can be almost as many agricultural guest workers in Maricopa County as in Yuma County. City nurseries and farms in Aguila make for over half of the requests in central Arizona, according to data from the Department of Labor.
Applications come in from all corners of the state. Overall, 65% of all requested workers head to fields in Yuma County, and about 24% to Maricopa County. Pinal County farms requested 1,603 H-2A workers last fiscal year, and the counties of Cochise, La Paz, Pima, and Yavapai requested a few hundred. Employers also made minor requests for Apache, Coconino, Navajo, and Santa Cruz counties.
The top 10 cities by number of requests were Yuma, Somerton, Aguila, Gadsden, Scottsdale, Roll, Phoenix, Wellton, Glendale, and Maricopa.
Not all requests for H-2A workers in Arizona farms, ranches, and nurseries come from state companies. California employers filed more requests for workers that would go to Arizona under an H-2A. Some 1,300 requests came from Michigan, 580 from Minnesota, and 260 from Kentucky.
Why was the program created?
The program was created in 1986 by the Immigration Reform and Control Act. It was the last bill passed by Congress that attempted comprehensive reforms to immigration law, a bargain between political leaders to both offer paths to legalize undocumented workers and stem illegal immigration. The law gave “amnesty” to almost 3 million undocumented people already in the U.S., beefed up penalties for employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers, and created a visa program specific to agriculture to meet labor needs — the H-2A visa.
Illegal immigration soared in the decades that followed, and some say it’s because the law didn’t create a streamlined way to legally hire migrants or was too weak to enforce sanctions on employers hiring unauthorized workers. Others say it served as an incentive for more people to come illegally.
Although many believe the H-2A program is in need of reform, it has kept growing.
In the first year, employers requested 44 workers under the visa program. Because it was seen to be administratively burdensome and discriminatory against U.S. workers, its popularity remained low until recently. The main condition of the visa program is that the job is seasonal and that employers prove that there aren’t enough U.S. workers “willing, qualified, and available” for the job, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ website.
After a labor shortage crisis shook fruit and vegetable-producing states in the early 2000s, employers leaned on the H-2A program. The Department of State issued over 300,000 H-2A visas in fiscal year 2023, nearly 10 times more than two decades ago. It has become the largest temporary visa program in the U.S.
How does it work for employers and migrants?
To bring H-2A workers to the U.S. employers must file petitions and pay fees to three federal agencies and prove they meet all requirements. Many farmers and produce companies pay contractors to do the paperwork and recruitment.
Employers making visa petitions must first apply for a labor certification with the Department of Labor. They must offer housing, three meals per day or free cooking facilities, and transportation from the foreign workers’ country to the U.S. and within the U.S. to the work fields. The employer may charge workers up to $15.88 daily for those meals and deduct it from pay. Temporary labor camps, motels, and hotels can be used for housing requirements as long as they meet the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards and local and state safety standards.
Employers must also prove they’ve sought U.S. workers, contacted former workers, invited them to work for the season, and advertised the job internally before they filed an H-2A petition. They must hire any qualified, eligible U.S. worker who applies for the job.
Once certified, employers must file immigration forms to Citizenship and Immigration Services. If the petition is approved by the Department of Homeland Security, then the foreign workers can apply for a visa with the Department of State at their city consulate, using the documents provided by the employer, and travel to a U.S. port of entry to be admitted by Customs and Border Protection. Visa fees and transportation costs must be reimbursed by the employer to the worker.
Changes to H-2A rules and controversies
To prevent adverse effects in local job markets, the federal visa program has rules to make sure H-2A workers aren’t underpaid. The Department of Labor mandates a special minimum wage for H-2A workers, depending on the region they are stationed. This special wage is called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, or AEWR, and is updated yearly.
Last year, the agency changed the method of how it is calculated, raising the H-2A wage by 4.4% in one year in places like Arizona. It has been the cause of lawsuits and controversy.
The Arizona Farm Bureau said this new methodology and rising wages will take a toll on many agricultural operations for which the program is already too costly.
Currently, some farms still pay domestic workers minimum state wage, even if H-2A workers earn higher wages under the adverse effect wage rate, farmworkers, crew supervisors, and farm owners in Yuma and Maricopa counties told The Republic. U.S. citizens and green card holders working on the farms said this is unfair as they do the same work and, unlike H-2A workers, they must pay rent and bills in the U.S. Some have claimed displacement, but these allegations have not been verified.
The Biden administration added requirements and worker protections to the H-2A program, like improving transportation safety, ensuring timely wage changes, and protecting workers who organize from retaliation. Some agricultural employers pushed back and filed lawsuits, causing unionization clauses to be blocked in several states.
The new rules are also meant to prevent exploitation and human trafficking and make clear that employers are prohibited from keeping workers’ identifications. Agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable to workplace abuse in the U.S., according to the Department of Labor.
In five years, 84% of all investigations conducted by the Department of Labor found one or more violations, mostly related to pay. Some employers have denied reimbursement or illegally charged migrant workers with recruitment and visa fees. In the worst cases, like the Operation Blooming Onion investigation by the Department of Justice, migrant workers brought under the H-2A program were forced to work for little or no pay, and lived in unsanitary, degrading conditions under threat of deportation.
Workers’ advocates and the agriculture industry continue to push for a comprehensive reform effort that addresses labor shortages, guarantees migrant workers’ rights, and allows American farms to stay competitive and in business.
Clara Migoya covers agriculture and water issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to [email protected].
