The Trump administration has made it cheaper and easier for farmers to bring temporary foreign farmworkers to the U.S.

But a push to expand the federal H-2A agricultural visa program might not solve a Pacific Northwest farm labor problem made worse by rigorous immigration enforcement campaigns – at least not right away.

So far in Oregon, there is no surge in visas.

And some advocates say these federal policy changes could also lower wages for local U.S. farmworkers, and possibly undercut them with a cheaper, temporary workforce.

Continued farm labor shortage

Last October, more than 30 farmworkers were arrested outside Woodburn. It was one of the biggest immigration raids in recent memory in the state.

Though Oregon or Washington haven’t seen continued large raids on farms or food processors, the rise in arrests has pushed some people to call off work and stay home out of fear that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will pull them over on their way to work, at the grocery store, or while picking their kids up from school.

The fear has also kept some workers away from farms and has left some farmers looking more closely at the H-2A visa program, said Ryan Ogburn, the visa services director at Washington-based WAFLA, formerly known as the Worker and Farmer Labor Association.

That agricultural visa program allows employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to hire temporary foreign farmworkers from abroad – most come from Mexico. Some farm groups say it’ll help employers as they face increasing labor costs.

The Trump administration has admitted that its continued immigration enforcement campaigns and tighter security at the southern U.S. border have made it more difficult for agricultural employers to keep a local labor force.

But that’s not the entire reason for the interest in the program, Ogburn said. There’s also a financial incentive: The federal government lowered its minimum hourly wages for temporary workers.

Many farms in Washington and Oregon, and across the U.S., have been barely in the black or operating at a net loss over the last year – that’s despite Trump administration efforts to inject billions of dollars in aid to U.S. farms.

Exacerbating that is the recent rise in fuel and fertilizer costs, as well as the continued rise in labor costs, which can sometimes account for over a third of the total cost to produce a crop.

One of the biggest Trump administration changes to the H-2A program is the way the federal government calculates what’s called the “adverse effect wage rate,” for foreign workers — a rate based on regional wage data.

In Oregon, the change meant foreign workers went from making a minimum of $19.82 an hour to as little as $15.25, a 23% reduction. Other, more skilled positions will pay slightly more, $17.62.

Employers will now also be allowed to deduct the cost of housing from workers’ paycheck.

In Oregon today, temporary workers do everything from working at nurseries to pruning and harvesting orchards or herding sheep and cattle.

The United Farm Workers is currently suing the federal government over the H-2A pay cut, calling it the “largest wealth transfer from workers to employers in U.S. agricultural history.”

The union is seeking an injunction to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor from enforcing the rule.

“Industry profits should never come at the expense of the workers who work tirelessly to put food on our tables,” said Reyna Lopez, the executive director of Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, Oregon’s largest farmworker union.

“And yet this is the aim of these changes to H-2A: To dismantle the labor rights that generations of farmworkers have advocated for on the streets, in the courtroom, and in the legislature,” she said in a statement.

But just because it’s cheaper, it doesn’t mean farmers are flocking to use the program, Ogburn said.

Growers have to offer certified housing for workers, provide transportation to and from their home country, and also pay the processing fees for the visa – costs that could outweigh the benefits of lower pay. It’s not cheap, Ogburn said.

“I just don’t think it’s a reasonable business decision to say ‘Yeah, maybe I can save a couple bucks not having to pay my domestic workers,’” he said. “I think [farmers] are happy to just pay a little bit more to their domestic workers and not have to deal with all of the craziness of the H-2A program and all of its costs.”

The federal government certified 4,081 visas for people to come work in Oregon under the H-2A program in 2025, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification. That’s 4.2% fewer H-2A visas for Oregon than were certified in 2024.

Historically, the program has not been as widely used in Oregon as in Washington and California.

Ogburn, with WAFLA, said he doesn’t expect to see an uptick in the program this year. He also doesn’t think the changes will undercut or lower wages for workers.

“Bottom line, I would say I understand [advocates’] arguments. But also, you have to consider the interest of the farm, which is, we’re losing farms every year. It’s just getting harder and harder to farm,” Ogburn said. “The Department of Labor has a lot of discretion on how they determine what these wages are. So while the advocates may not like the specific methodology, it appears to us to be legal.”

Concerns about farmworker rights and wages

Some advocates worry that the Trump administration’s push to lower wages and bring in more farmworkers through the H-2A visa program could undermine the rights and wages of people already in the United States.

Legally, temporary foreign workers cannot be given preference over local workers, said D. Michale Dale, a senior attorney with the Northwest Workers Justice Project, a nonprofit legal group that represents immigrant and low-wage workers.

“However, everything doesn’t always work in a legal way,” he said.

Dale points to a 2025 case where a jury found a Clackamas County farm had unlawfully discriminated against a man after he applied for work. The employer hired H-2A workers, even though the man was a qualified U.S. citizen with farmworker experience.

“He happened to live close to the farm. So when he went there, nobody was there to speak to him. Nobody could take his application. He was told that people would be in touch, and they never were,” Dale said. “And, yet the [visa application] undoubtedly would have said that no workers are available” – something employers have to state when they seek workers from outside the U.S.

Temporary status workers have similar legal protections as U.S. workers. Employers must provide these workers with an overview of their rights, and they also need to follow state and local guidelines for compensation and housing standards.

Farm workers can file a complaint if they feel their employer violated any laws.

But, Dale said, farmworkers with temporary work visas may feel they can’t advocate for their rights.

“If you make complaints in the United States and ‘cause trouble,’ then you’re not going to be asked back next year,” he said. “There’s enormous pressure on people to keep their heads down, work hard, work reliably, and not cause any problems, no matter what the conditions are. And that’s a pretty good workforce from an employer’s standpoint.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/02/trump-administration-push-to-bring-more-guest-farmworkers/