Agricultural guest worker debate lurks amid GOP plans for mass deportations

U.S. agriculture has turned increasingly to short-term guest workers to relieve a labor shortage in recent years. Farm groups and farm state lawmakers want to expand the program. The Republican platform does not mention agricultural workers while pledging strong immigration laws. Project 2025, which describes itself as a blueprint for a new Trump administration, says the H-2A agricultural visa should be phased out over the next 10 to 20 years.

Approximately 310,000 H-2A visas were issued by the State Department in 2023, up from 298,000 visas in 2022 and four times more than the 75,000 visas in 2010. Farmers say they have turned to the H-2A program because of the difficulty in recruiting farm labor. Half of farmworkers are believed to be undocumented, and many are reaching retirement age. The 275,000 H-2A guest workers of 2020 accounted for 10% of the average employment on crop farms, according to a USDA report.

In March, a bipartisan working group unanimously recommended that the H-2A visa, now limited to seasonal work, also be available for year-round work on farms and in processing plants. “One thing that has become clear is the need for dairy products, meat processors, sugar processors, forestry, ranchers, and others to have access to a steady and legal workforce,” said the working group, composed of members of the House Agriculture Committee.

Action is needed to “reform the H-2A wage system to reflect real-world wages better, while protecting against sudden wage increases that disrupt employer planning and operations,” said the working group. It suggested a wage freeze for 2025, followed by yearly increases of no more than 3.25% through 2029.

The Trump administration proposed a two-year wage freeze for guest workers in 2020, just before the presidential election. Then Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the Labor Department regulation demonstrated “President Trump’s commitment to America’s farmers by delivering lower costs when they need it the most.” The minimum pay rates set by the Labor Department, known as adverse effect wage rates, are intended to prevent H-2A wages from undermining pay for American workers.

Farmers frequently say the wage rates are burdensomely high. The American Farm Bureau Federation said it “supports short-term relief in the form of a justified pause in the minimum wage rate.” The H-2A program should be reformed to provide “flexibility for employers and workers by allowing employment options to address seasonal and year-round needs and a reasonable and mutually agreeable wage rate.”

To the contrary, Project 2025 says, “The low cost of H-2A workers undercuts American workers in agricultural employment.”

“Congress should immediately cap this program at its current levels and establish a schedule for its gradual and predictable phase-down over the subsequent 10 to 20 years, producing the necessary incentives for the industry to invest in raising productivity, including through capital investment in agricultural equipment, and increasing employment for Americans in the agricultural sector,” said Project 2025, shepherded by the Heritage Foundation. The Project 2025 chapter on the Labor Department notes the alternative argument that without guest workers, farmers would have to increase wages drastically and even then, not be certain of finding enough U.S.-born workers to bring food products to the market.

The 16-page Republican platform, adopted a week ago, vows “the largest deportation operation in American history” and to “sending illegal aliens back home.” Republicans say they would complete the border wall with Mexico, make border enforcement a high priority for law enforcement and the military and subject people entering the country legally to “strict vetting.” The platform endorses merit-based immigration. “We will end chain migration, and put American workers first,” it said.

The costs, time, and disruptions involved in deporting millions of people would be enormous, said the New York Times. One immigration expert said it would take billions of dollars and as long as 20 years to accomplish. During Trump’s tenure in office, the United States deported 936,000 people. Congress allotted $3.4 billion this year for deportation facilities holding an average 41,500 immigrants.