Demand on H-2A Visa Program Grows as Migrant Enforcement Looms

As the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration workplace raids, agricultural businesses not yet directly targeted in the crackdown are investing more in workplace compliance and showing a bigger interest in hiring through seasonal work visas.

In some areas, a surge in sweeps and arrests by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has reportedly led immigrants to stay home from jobs, imperiling manufacturing and crop harvests. Immigration attorneys and others in the industry say farmers gripped with similar anxiety are looking to enter the H-2A visa program for the first time as further enforcement on immigrant labor looms.

“The shift in tone does have people worried,” said L.J. D’Arrigo, a partner at Harris Beach Murtha.

That renewed interest will place more pressure on a program that’s seen massive growth over the past decade, but is also considered “broken” by the agricultural industry. The H-2A program, which has no annual cap, allows farm employers to hire foreign workers on a seasonal basis and has seen significant growth in recent years as the industry struggles to fill agricultural jobs.

The Trump administration is doing away with 2024 worker protection regulations for H-2A workers and set up a new office at the US Labor Department to streamline access to employment-based visas. But farm employers have clamored for new regulations that would reduce labor costs for the program and expand eligibility to more farm roles.

“There’s growing concern as that happens as to whether it can meet the demands and the needs of growers,” said John Hollay, director of workforce and labor policy at the International Fresh Produce Association. “The program is broken. It needs a lot of fixes.”

Workplace Enforcement

ICE’s worksite enforcement actions resulted in at least 450 arrests in the first six months of the administration. Few of those raids have targeted agriculture or food production so far, but the industries are still feeling pressure as workers don’t show up and immigration officials ratchet up scrutiny.

Employers are being hit with a large increase in I-9 audits to verify employment authorization, which can be a precursor to workplace raids. And some farm employers have had ICE agents seek voluntary access to work sites or even park vehicles on public roads leading to employer properties, stirring fear among workers, said Cynthia Yarbrough, a partner at Fisher Phillips LLP.

“They didn’t come in, they didn’t engage, but they were present,” she said. “People get anxious.”

Farm employers are investing more in internal audits of their I-9 documents as well as employment-based visa or humanitarian options. Businesses that were once willing to turn a blind eye when it came to immigration enforcement are “being scared straight right now,” said Wendel Hall, managing partner at Hall Global.

But many of those employers who hope to secure immigration status for long-time unauthorized workers are finding out there’s no lawful pathway available to them, Hall said. Others who hired immigrant employees with work permits under programs like Temporary Protected Status are now facing another labor squeeze as the Department of Homeland Security terminates those designations, creating new challenges for verifying workers’ eligibility.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a press conference this week that there would be “no amnesty under any circumstances” but added that deportations would be strategic to avoid disrupting the country’s food supply.

H-2A Interest Grows

“If somebody isn’t using the H-2A program and they’re not in E-Verify, there are going to be questions in the back of their mind about whether a worker is truly legal or not,” said Justin Bartlett, co-CEO at Legacy Labor Inc. “If somebody was on the fence on going the H-2A route, this has pushed them over the edge.”

Chris Ball, CEO at visa services provider másLabor, said businesses who may have unauthorized workers are “very concerned that all of a sudden they’re not going to show up.”

Even before President Donald Trump took office, there was a spike in demand on the H-2A program. Petitions for the seasonal visas were up 19.7% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 compared to 2024, potentially in anticipation of increased enforcement during the Trump administration’s second term, said Michael Marsh, president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers.

It’s not realistic for either farm employers or federal agencies to expect the H-2A program to replace unauthorized farmworkers—as much as 40% of the US agricultural labor force—with workers on seasonal visas, Marsh said.

“Getting that many additional workers through the process boggles your mind,” he said. “It would take a huge infusion of resources by the administration.”

Regulatory Moves

Labor groups have taken the administration to court over enforcement policies affecting migrant workers.

The United Farmworkers sued the Department of Homeland Security in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California, winning a court order in April banning Border Patrol officers from making stops without reasonable suspicion that individuals are noncitizens as well as arrests without a warrant. That case is currently under appeal.

Another complaint filed this month in the Central District of California by UFW and other labor groups aims to prevent stops without reasonable suspicion.

Agriculture employers meanwhile have continued to lobby Trump administration officials to give the industry a break from worksite enforcement that they say could disrupt the labor force and the country’s food supply.

They welcomed a DOL announcement that it would rescind a Biden era H-2A workplace organizing rule—one of dozens of regulations targeted for removal by the Trump DOL—but a new policy pausing an immigration crackdown on farm and hospitality businesses was short-lived.

Industry representatives say they’re looking to show the administration the impact the efforts are having on employers while pushing at the same time to make the H-2A program less costly.

“We’ve explained the realities of what happens when raids occur and have tried to provide some real world examples” the IFPA’s Hollay said. “When they’ve gotten information, they appreciate knowing what the impact can be.”