One U.S. Visa Program Is Growing Rapidly. No One Is Happy With It

The Trump administration is focused on an immigration crackdown. But agriculture employers and some moderate Republicans want to start negotiating at least one aspect of legal immigration: expanding a visa program that brings foreign workers to America’s farms.

Dozens of farmers — including dairy farmers and blueberry, apple and peach growers — and lobbying powerhouses like the American Farm Bureau Federation took to Washington this month to advocate for their labor needs. At the center of discussions is a bill introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson that would expand access to the H-2A visa for seasonal agricultural labor.

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The H-2A visa program provides workers, primarily from Mexico, for farms that need someone to pick, fertilize and prune crops on a seasonal and temporary basis. Historically, farms with year-round needs such as dairies have been excluded from the program. But use of H-2A visas has jumped more than 500% since 2012 — from 62,743 to nearly 400,000 in 2025, in part because other programs have strict caps and other limits.

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Labor organizations and conservatives are skeptical of any program that expands the use of foreign labor. Labor groups have long criticized the H-2A program for the potential of workplace abuses, and conservatives take issue with any program that could grandfather in workers currently working in the U.S. illegally.

Farmers and other businesses warn of immediate consequences to their labor supply without expanding the program, given the administration’s deportations and continued record-low crossings at the southern border.

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Farmers argue that if the administration continues to push for mass deportations, they need a legal pathway to get workers. About half of all crop farmworkers are working without authorization, according to the latest estimates from the Agriculture Department.

The administration acknowledges challenges between strict immigration enforcement and farm labor supply. The Labor Department last year warned that increasing resources for immigration enforcement risks supply chain disruptions and food supply problems.

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First established in the 1980s, the H-2A program allows agricultural employers to request foreign farmworkers on a temporary and seasonal basis, provided they cannot find enough workers in the U.S., among other requirements.

Florida is the top state for use of H-2A visas, followed by Georgia, California, Washington and North Carolina. Those states make up just over half of all H-2A visa certifications.

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But growers are unhappy with the program’s provisions, such as wages that regularly increase and other costs, including responsibilities to pay for housing, transportation and medical care for each worker.

Last fall, the Labor Department issued a rule that would take housing costs out of workers’ paychecks and change the way wages are calculated — effectively lowering guest workers’ pay and making the program cheaper for farmers.

But farmers say more changes are needed, which is impossible without action from Congress.

Dairy, cattle and pork producers want access to the visa program. And some said they would like their current workers, who may be working illegally, to be able to access the visa.

For those who don’t have access to visas, like in the dairy industry, more than half of workers are undocumented, according to some estimates. State-level estimates in places like Idaho and Wisconsin are even higher.

Last month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo clarifying that some dairies could access H-2A visas if they proved “seasonal” labor needs. This caught the attention of the dairy industry, which is among the groups advocating for an expansion of the visas.

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The bill introduced by Thompson would remove the seasonal requirements of the visa while keeping it temporary, at a maximum 350 days a year. It would ensure other sectors like forestry, aquaculture and livestock would get access to the program. And it would provide a process for existing unauthorized workers to access the H-2A program. The bill does not provide any pathway to legalization.

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From the other side, labor groups representing farmworkers and supporters of the president’s hard-line immigration agenda oppose any H-2A expansion.

Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, said her group would not support a measure without a pathway to legalization for those already in the U.S.

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UFW has many members in some of the states that have seen highest use of H-2A visas, such as California and Washington. Romero and other labor groups also worry that the H-2A program doesn’t do enough to protect workers. Workers who come on these visas are tied to a specific employer, making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

The AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization, also opposes any expansion.

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Thompson and other Republican members of Congress hope to start a new conversation around changes to popular visa programs that serve businesses, after 18 months of an administration that has prioritized border security.

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Several times last year, Trump vowed to support a visa solution for farms to get enough workers. While farms themselves have not been a primary target of immigration enforcement, few policy proposals to secure the workforce have come to fruition.

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