Bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the U.S House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) would change the accessibility and cost of agricultural labor through the H-2A visa program.
Under the H-2A program, a H-2A visa is a nonimmigrant visa without a pathway to U.S. citizenship. American farmers use H-2A workers to overcome a shrinking domestic, agricultural labor work force. Wages for H-2A workers are calculated based on a minimum wage originally designed to ensure domestic workers were not undercut by foreign laborers.
The Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026 would allow nonimmigrant foreign workers to perform temporary agricultural jobs when domestic workers are unavailable. It also would expand access to the H-2A program for year-round operations, control costs, and streamline the interactions of the government agencies administering the program.
“It’s time to bring the H-2A program into the 21st century,” Thompson said. “Producers have been sounding the alarm for years that Congress needs to address the workforce crisis we have on our hands in farm country. The H-2A visa program is woefully outdated, and it no longer meets the needs of American agricultural production.”
More than 300,000 H-2A visas were issued in 2024, 2,766 percent more than the number issued in 1996.