U.S. Labor Department: Less Pay Means More Farm Employees
Published: Friday, October 31, 2025
Earlier this year, the Congressional Research Service, the Senate and House's self-described "exclusive" research and analysis group, "estimated 680,000 farmworkers are illegal immigrants and make up 35% of the (U.S.) agricultural workforce."
That group is a "larger percentage than U.S. citizens (27%), foreign guest workers (16%) or non-citizens with authorization to work in the U.S. (22%)." It's also the ag employee group hardest hit by the White House's immigration enforcement.
In fact, according to the Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Labor recently noted that the crackdown and its "near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'"
Moreover, it added, "'Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow'" due to the recent "increased funding for immigration enforcement ..."
What "source of stable and lawful labor" can the Labor Department "provide?"
Earlier this year, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins cheerfully predicted that the Trump immigration policy would soon remake the U.S. farm workforce into "100% American."
Not a chance, Labor recently explained. "Americans are not willing to step into farm work," and "lack the skills to fill agricultural jobs that undocumented immigrants are abandoning."
As such, "The Department concludes that qualified and eligible U.S. workers will not make themselves available in sufficient numbers ..."
Americans have made it abundantly clear for decades they have no interest in farm work. That means the U.S. needs more "legal" foreign farmworkers.
Exactly, explained Michael Marsh of the National Council of Agricultural Employers in the Oct. 16 Capital Press, but "It's unrealistic to think illegal immigrants could be replaced by simply letting in more foreign farmworkers."
The reason, he said, is simple: "The Labor Department doesn't have the capacity to process that many applicants for workers."
There's a simple reason for that, too: Twenty percent, or nearly 3,000, Labor employees were eliminated by DOGE or agreed to the administration's early retirement program.
Other administration moves are about to bite into farmworker numbers, too.
According to the Post, a "new (Labor) rule that took effect Oct. 2 effectively lowers pay for seasonal migrants working in agriculture under the H-2A program," the program whereby U.S. employers legally hire seasonal foreign workers when they can't secure enough American workers.
The pay cut "will save H-2A employers," noted one press report, "$2.46 billion per year ... (across) roughly 22,000 farms that hire ... approximately 371,000 or so immigrant workers, based on 2024 figures ..."
That projected $2.46 billion in "savings" is, of course, a $2.46 billion pay cut to seasonal farmworkers legally in the U.S. to do the hard, dirty work Americans won't.
Somehow, though, the pay cut "will lead farmers to hire more H-2A workers." Indeed, "The Labor Department estimates farmers will hire approximately 119,000 additional H-2A workers as a result."
Labor doesn't explain how a pay cut will lead more people—not less—to travel to another country to work for lower wages in a seasonal job no one else will do.
Nor will it. The Farm Labor Survey, the USDA report that monitors ag employment, was recently discontinued because, according to the department, farm groups argued "it unfairly drove increases in wages."
So, according to the administration, cutting farm wages, eliminating the ability to screen "legal" farmworkers, not monitoring farm employees, and continuing harsh immigrant enforcement will reduce today's threat to "the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers."
In what world is any of this true?
Return to Top of Page