Immigrant farm workers harvest broccoli on March 16, 2006, near the border town of near San Luis, south of Yuma, Arizona. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a lawsuit to block new federal protections for H-2A farmworkers, claiming that it burdens farmers. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a lawsuit to block new federal protections for foreign farm workers on H2-A temporary visas.
Marshall, along with Republican attorneys general from Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, argued in the motion to intervene that the rule places undue burdens on farmers and would allow migrant workers employed under the H-2A visa program to organize and engage in collective bargaining. That, they argued, can only be done through legislative action.
“Attempting to establish collective bargaining rights for H-2A workers is beyond the scope of what Congress has intended for the department (of Labor) to consider,” the lawsuit stated.
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A message seeking comment was left with Marshall’s office on Tuesday.
The rule, issued by the Biden administration in April, provides more protections for temporary farm workers by addressing issues like employer retaliation, unsafe working conditions and illegal recruitment.
The motion to intervene was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, where Kentucky farmers, along with agricultural associations, have challenged the Department of Labor’s new regulation. The suit argues that the rule would create additional bureaucratic hurdles for agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers when local labor is scarce.
In fiscal year 2023, 1,684 H-2A visa applicants were approved in Alabama, out of just over 419,000 approved applicants nationwide — about .004% — according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There were 378,513 positions certified nationwide by the Department of Labor.
Jeff Helms, communication director at Alabama Farmers Federation, said in a statement they support Marshall’s “defense of the H-2A program for both farmers and the guest workers whose families benefit from seasonal employment.”
“The H-2A program is already highly regulated and includes extensive protections for guest workers. The Department of Labor’s misnamed rule is redundant and a clear example of regulatory overreach. If left unchecked, the rule would create burdensome obstacles for employers, ultimately making the H-2A program unworkable,” the statement said.
The Biden administration’s rule, aimed at improving protections for farm workers, introduces several new requirements, including improved safety standards — such as seatbelts in farm transport vehicles — and allowing workers to meet with legal service providers without fear of retaliation.
Allison Hamilton, executive director for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said these protections are long overdue. She said that migrant farm workers are often isolated in employer-provided housing, where visitors are often not allowed. Workers often feel vulnerable and are afraid to speak up against working conditions, fearing their employment would be terminated.
“In general, there’s a huge problem with retaliation. If farm workers do anything that the employer doesn’t like, then they just threaten to pull their visas and get them deported or fire them so that they’re no longer eligible to work,” Hamilton said.
The rule also states that employers must disclose recruitment agreements to combat human trafficking. Hamilton said some of the practices is “borderline, and sometimes is, human trafficking.”
“We’ve seen issues where the employers do collect [worker’s] passports or their travel documents, and they’re held without much ability to leave while they’re paying back their debt to the employer for the privilege of coming and working for an inhumane condition,” she said.
A federal judge in Georgia earlier this year blocked the rule in 17 other states.
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