Republicans push to expand farm labor visas amid immigration crackdown
Republicans moved to widen H-2A farm visas even as immigration enforcement tightens. The program has grown more than 500% since 2012, but farmers say it is still too costly and bureaucratic.
Glenn “GT” Thompson introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act on June 30, 2026, putting House Republicans at the center of a fight over how far to expand the H-2A farm labor visa. Thompson said, “While this may not be in our jurisdiction, it is certainly in the interest of the farmers and ranchers, and foresters that we represent,” and acknowledged that the House Judiciary Committee must act on any immigration or visa bill.
The Trump administration has been focused on an immigration crackdown, while farm groups and some moderate Republicans are pressing for more legal labor pathways as growers say they cannot find enough U.S. workers. H-2A has no annual numerical cap, unlike the H-2B nonagricultural program, which is capped at 66,000, and Congress created the current H-2A framework in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. The visa, which is used primarily for workers from Mexico, covers seasonal tasks such as picking, fertilizing and pruning crops, but it has historically excluded year-round operations like dairies.
Use of H-2A visas has risen more than 500% since 2012, from 62,743 to nearly 400,000 in 2025. In fiscal 2024, the Labor Department recorded 391,590 requested positions and 384,900 certified positions, with Florida, Georgia, California, Washington and North Carolina among the top states. The American Farm Bureau Federation puts H-2A use in fiscal 2026 up 17% in volume, while fewer than 0.07% of those jobs received a domestic applicant. First-half fiscal 2026 certifications topped 254,000 positions, putting the program on pace to break another record.
Farmers say H-2A has become more expensive and more complex, and one Kansas grower in Bellville estimated labor costs at about $30 an hour once housing and transportation are included. Labor groups say the system can suppress wages and enable abuse, while conservative immigration hardliners oppose any bill that could give legal status to undocumented farmworkers already in agriculture.
USDA canceled the Farm Labor Survey in 2025, creating a vacuum in how non-range H-2A wages are set, and the Labor Department issued an interim final rule in October 2025 that moved the calculation to Bureau of Labor Statistics data and added an Adverse Compensation Adjustment tied to employer-provided housing. United Farm Workers filed suit in November 2025.
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