H-2A: Slavery, Debt Bondage, and Other Abuses

Fact Sheet - Monday, March 10, 2025

Federal Oversight Agencies: DOL, DOS, DHS
Dependents: H4

The Basics:

• Notorious for exploitation, the employer-sponsored and numerically uncapped H-2A visa category is for temporary or seasonal agricultural employment. 

• Employers must petition for the alien so the alien worker’s status depends on the employment relationship with the employer/sponsor. 

• H-2A employers must attempt to recruit American workers and prove that no American workers are willing and able to do the job. 

• H-2A employers are also subject to the Department of Labor's calculated Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which effectively serves as a minimum wage for H-2A visa holders. The AEWR's goal is to mitigate the suppression of the wages offered to American workers due to employers using H-2A visa workers as cheap labor.

• H-2A employers must provide free housing and transportation to and from the worksite for H-2A  employees.  

• The number of H-2A visas requested and approved has increased more than sevenfold in the past 18 years, from just over 48,000 positions certified in fiscal year 2005 to around 378,034 in fiscal year 2023.

The Problem:

• According to the Department of Agriculture, roughly 40 percent of the agricultural workforce is comprised of illegal aliens, despite the exponential rise in H-2A usage and the fact that the visa category is uncapped. 

• Operation Blooming Onion found forced labor within the H-2A program.

• The Economic Policy Institute reported that the DOL opened a record-low number of investigations in 2022, even though the H-2A program was growing and is known for fraud. 

• Farmworker Justice’s study, “No Way to Treat a Guest,” found that the H-2A program drove down wages for both foreign and domestic workers and was rife with fraud and abuse. 

• An 18-month H-2A investigation by PRISM also found widespread abuse of the program, including wage theft, debt bondage, squalid living conditions, and violence and threats of violence. 

• The agriculture industry is a perennial resident on the DOL’s Low Wage/High Violation industry list. 

• The AEWR has not protected American job opportunities or raised farm worker wages.

• The availability of unlimited H-2A visas, as well as large numbers of illegal aliens, has incentivized agricultural employers to prioritize cheap labor, and has discouraged mechanization and investment in capital. 

LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATION: Congress should mandate the use of E-Verify by agricultural (and all other) employers to prevent the employment of illegal aliens. Any employer found to have exploited or abused H-2A workers or rejected American workers in order to employ H-2A workers should be permanently banned from the H-2A program. The nationals of any country with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the United States should be barred from participating in the H-2A program. (If it isn’t safe to return illegal aliens to a country, we certainly shouldn’t be admitting temporary workers, who will be expected to return to that country when their visas expire.) Congress should increase the AEWR to incentivize employers to either recruit American workers or invest in capital (mechanization). Congress should also recognize the national security and public safety implications of importing a foreign serf class to produce America’s food supply and consider providing tax incentives or other subsidies for mechanization investments. Alternatively, Congress should eliminate the H-2A visa, which would naturally incentivize mechanization.

ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDATION: The Labor Department must invest resources into real oversight of the H-2A visa program and vigorously investigate and prosecute abuses. Any employer found to have violated the terms of the visa program or abused H-2A workers should be denied future H-2A visas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should dedicate resources to worksite enforcement on farms, to identify and remove illegal workers, to ensure that H-2A rules are being followed, and to prosecute employers violating the law.