A Silicon Valley lawmaker is calling for the federal government to overturn actions that will drive down wages for seasonal agricultural workers in the region.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced a March 26 resolution to block the lowering of hourly wages for seasonal agricultural workers. The U.S. Department of Labor in October implemented new rules, before holding the required comment period, that slashed wages on new H-2A visa workers by up to $7 per hour depending on the state, according to the United Farm Workers Foundation.
Farmworker advocates have decried the move, saying it undercuts pay for domestic and foreign farmworkers.
“The farmworkers who feed all of us should be able to also feed themselves and their families with the wages they make,” Daniel Larios, spokesperson for the United Farm Workers Foundation, told San José Spotlight. “Instead, this administration is unlawfully cutting their wages and transferring billions from workers to employers. We need to do what is right for our farmworkers and stop these wage cuts.”
The foundation and its sister organization The United Farm Workers sued President Donald Trump’s administration and are awaiting a federal judge’s decision.
Use of H-2A visas have soared in California over the years. Santa Clara County went from having zero certifications for H-2A visas in 2013 to 513 in 2023, according to a report produced by the University of California, Davis. Overall, visa certifications have grown by more than 800% statewide in the past decade. Nationwide, nearly 400,000 visas were certified in 2025, with nearly half coming from California, Washington, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The H-2A visa program, created in 1986, allows employers to sponsor foreigners to work the fields for less than a year, provided they demonstrate there aren’t available workers residing in the U.S. The program requires employers to provide workers housing and transportation. Employers have generally paid more than the state minimum wage to ensure they don’t undercut local jobseekers.
District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who represents rural South County, said she’s concerned about how Trump’s actions will harm the region’s farmworkers.
“Trump’s oversea wars hurt farmers by pushing up fertilizer and diesel costs, and now instead of policies that reduce these costs, he’s taking it out on farmworkers,” Arenas told San José Spotlight. “I deeply appreciate Congresswoman Lofgren standing up against this. She has been a true leader and partner in advocating for our farmworkers — including securing funding to build a new farmworker resource center and rehabilitate farmworker housing in Santa Clara County.”
In California, employers have been required to pay $19.97 an hour for H-2A visa holders. But with the Department of Labor changing the way wages are calculated and allowing employers to deduct money for housing, workers will make the state’s minimum wage at $16.90 an hour.
The rule changes could help employers save about $2.5 billion a year, a move some say will bring relief to farm owners struggling to keep up with the wages.
“The new methodology from the Department of Labor will allow employers to pay workers at a competitive rate that is commensurate with their work and experience,” Dan Newhouse, a Republican congressman from Washington, said in a statement. “This will save employers who utilize the H-2A program billions of dollars per year in costs and deliver much needed relief to producers who have been strained by workforce costs.”
The H-2A program hasn’t come without issues. Reports of wage theft, inhumane living conditions and even sexual exploitation have plagued visa holders due to gaps in accountability. Because H-2A visa holders can only work for the employer who petitioned them, workers tend to suffer in silence.
“(There’s a) threatening component of, ‘Either you work for me or I’ll deport you back,’” Héktor Calderón- Victoria, owner of a small organic farm in Morgan Hill, told San José Spotlight. “Maybe the farm itself doesn’t have the best reputation in the community so they aren’t able to hire the workforce that is already there.”
Small farm owners like Calderón-Victoria don’t utilize H-2A visas due to the high cost, he said.
Lofgren has been working to reform farmworker rights and create a pathway to citizenship, including for undocumented workers and visa holders, through the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
Lofgren first introduced the bill in 2019 and then again in 2021. It passed both times in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, but didn’t get enough votes in the Senate. She reintroduced the bill last year, and it’s been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Lofgren said leaders in Washington, D.C. need to recognize the urgency of this issue.
“This legislation is one of my top priorities at the moment, because it’s critical to stabilizing our agricultural sector and protecting our nation’s food supply,” Lofgren told San José Spotlight. “I spent months negotiating the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act with input from farmers, agricultural stakeholders, labor organizations and farmworker advocates. That’s how the H-2A reform process should work, not some rushed unilateral decision.”
Kimberly Alvarenga, manager at the Santa Clara County Office of Immigrant Relations, said the county is in favor of Lofgren’s initiative to protect farmworkers and create a pathway to citizenship.
“The county supports every effort to enforce and promote the rights of all workers, including low-wage workers, workers from vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities and workers in the gig economy — and to redress wage theft and other violations of workers’ rights, workplace protections and other labor standards,” Alvarenga told San José Spotlight.
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
This story originally appeared in San José Spotlight.