Trump's wage cut for foreign labor is a gift to American farmers

Joe Petrocco, a fourth-generation vegetable farmer in Colorado, is facing one of the toughest seasons he can remember, with rising costs for fertilizer and fuel as well as a looming water shortage after a dry winter.

But one part of his business is providing some optimism: As farms like his across the U.S. get going on the planting and harvesting seasons, when the need for workers spikes, the cost of immigrant labor is set to drop. The cut could be more than $5 an hour in some places, reducing pay by a third. That's thanks to a Trump administration move to lower minimum wages for foreign farmworkers who come to the U.S. legally on temporary H-2A visas.

"We've been under such a tight squeeze," Petrocco lamented in a recent interview. Since the U.S. launched its war in Iran, prices for fertilizer and diesel have soared about 50%. The relief on labor costs won't fully offset the other tailwinds for his 3,000-acre operation, which grows spinach, cabbage, onions, green beans and sweet corn among other crops, but it's a welcome break. "It's significant," Petrocco said.

As Donald Trump fulfills a campaign pledge to crack down on almost all forms of immigration - from undocumented crossings to foreign university students to H-1B visas for highly skilled professionals - his aggressive enforcement is creating labor shortages in industries ranging from construction to fast food. But the president is going the opposite way on farms by keeping the path for temporary workers open.

Trump, who has frequently boasted about his support among farmers, hosted growers at the White House shortly after he began his second term, telling them, "You voted for me. I will never forget that." As raids swept through Southern California last year and temporarily led to an increase in absences at some agriculture work sites, the president vowed to "protect our farmers" and suggested at various points that he's sympathetic to their need for immigrant workers.

His gift comes after U.S. growers and their lobbyists have been pushing for change around the H-2A visa program for years, arguing onerous rules made it too cumbersome and expensive to hire temporary seasonal workers. The changes could also aid Trump's pledge to ease the cost of living. Food has been one of the top drivers of inflation, and lowering farmers' costs could help keep a lid on prices, a big voter issue in 2026 midterms with control of Congress in play.

The changes approved by the administration last year go beyond reducing pay - they also include a provision allowing employers to effectively charge workers for housing, which previously they had to provide for free.

Under the new wage rules, nationally farm workers stand to lose between $4.4 billion and $5.4 billion annually, according to an Economic Policy Institute estimate.

Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at EPI, said the wage cuts appear to have a dual intent: help American farmers find cheaper labor, thus making it easier for them to replace unauthorized workers.

"I think that's the strategy overall: Deport the undocumented and replace them with H-2A low-wage workers," Costa said.

Unlike most other work visa categories, those for farm workers have no annual limits. Usage has grown about 10-fold over the past 20 years, with a record 315,000 such visas issued in fiscal year 2024, the most recent data.

In a legal notice before the new rules took effect, officials described the changes as eliminating a "number of unnecessary, burdensome, and costly requirements on employers." The United Farm Workers and other farm labor advocates have sued the administration to block the wage changes, arguing reductions for foreign workers will also drive down salaries for domestic workers.

To take part in the program, employers need to show that hiring foreigners won't "adversely affect" U.S. workers. They aren't allowed to charge recruitment fees. Workers are reimbursed for meals daily, as well as the cost of travel from their home country and their return home. Contracts vary, but typically H-2A workers come for six to nine months, and many return year after year.

Mexico accounted for about 286,000 H-2A visa holders in fiscal year 2024, according to the most recent data published by the U.S. State Department. South African farm workers represented the second-largest group, with about 14,700 temporary workers. There were also 18 Canadians.

Though the wage reductions will vary by state - the rules factor in cost of living and employers still have to meet local minimum wage rules - workers across the country will see cuts. In Georgia, for example, the lowest paid could see a cut of $5.56 an hour to $10.77. In California, the lowest rate will drop by about $3, to roughly $16 an hour.

Richard Keeth, the chief operating officer of Charlottesville, Virginia-based masLabor, an H-2A recruitment firm, said the roughly 12,000 seasonal farm workers his company recruits will see an average wage drop of about $2.19 an hour this year. That gave some people pause when deciding whether to sign up. But ultimately, seasonal jobs in the U.S. are generally still a better financial option than what's available in their home countries, particularly Mexico, Keeth said.

"When we started around recruitment this year, that was a tough call to every H-2A worker," he said. "As you can imagine, $2 an hour when you're making $17 is a life changing decrease for some people. And so we initially had a lot of worry. Is it cost prohibitive? It turned out that that's not the case."

Keeth said about 8% to 10% of the roughly 12,000 H-2A workers his company is placing with U.S. farms this year opted to move to states with higher pay, a far smaller rate than initially expected. And some of the roughly 2,100 employers who use his firm, he said, opted to pay returning workers the same, higher wages, to ensure a steady and experienced workforce.

H-2A recipients generally work between 45 and 50 hours a week, with a guaranteed minimum of 35 hours, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Those visa holders don't come to the U.S. with their families and the program doesn't offer a path to legal residency or citizenship.

While in the U.S., workers are often housed on farms in dorm-style buildings equipped with bunk beds, shared bathrooms and showers and kitchen facilities.

For U.S. agriculture firms writ large, industry proponents said, the new wage scale curbs inflated pay rates imposed by the government.

"The costs were spiraling out of control," said Duane Simpson, chief executive officer of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. "It was the government setting the market, not the market setting the market."

William Bourdeau, a nut farmer in California's Central Valley, said he welcomes the new rules. A supporter of Trump's MAGA movement who hosted a fundraiser for now-Vice President JD Vance, Bourdeau says lowering mandated minimums could help stave off automation efforts that many farmers have considered in light of rising labor costs.

"People should be paid what they're worth and I think the state of California has it out of whack," Bourdeau said.

And with too few Americans willing to work on farms the labor program continues to be necessary to keep businesses like his going, he said.

Most U.S. farm workers are foreign born and as many as 42% are in the U.S. without permission, according to a 2025 report from the Department of Agriculture. Labor unions, farmers and worker activists all largely agree that there's a severe shortage of U.S. citizens willing to do the often backbreaking work in unpleasant conditions for relatively low pay.

Farm worker advocates and others have argued the new rules are unfair to foreign workers and will ultimately push down wages for Americans who are willing to work in growing operations despite the Trump administration's repeated pledges to put U.S. workers first.

The changes come after a year of high-profile immigration arrest operations, including several that targeted farming operations in California. But in general, federal officials carried out relatively few raids against the industry, and Trump stated that he was looking to let undocumented farm and hospitality workers leave the U.S. for a brief time and come back legally.

At Petrocco Farms, the higher costs for fuel and fertilizer along with the lack of water means about one-third of its land will likely lie fallow this summer. That will reduce the need for H-2A workers to about 150 this season, from a more typical 300 for the farm.

Still, those 150 workers, mostly from Mexico, will make the state minimum wage of $15.16 an hour this year, more than $2 an hour less than last year.

"They make much less there than they do here," said Petrocco, who is vice president of the family farm and president of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Association. "Even with the $2 or $3 cut, they will still come here very enthusiastically."

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