06/30/2026 Farm Workers Oppose Legislation Lowering Farm Worker Wages and Displacing American Workers

Washington, D.C. - The United Farm Workers and UFW Foundation are opposed to the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act (SAWA), introduced by Representative GT Thompson (R-PA), which will undercut U.S. farm workers, impoverish rural communities, and expand the exploitative H2A guest worker program.

SAWA would make permanent the Trump administration's farm worker wage cut, which the UFW and UFW Foundation are currently challenging in federal court. The last time that the Trump administration issued a similar rule, the same federal court ruled that it was unlawful in 2020.

SAWA will:

• codify key elements of the Trump administration's wage cut rule, which cuts farm worker wages by $3-7 dollars an hour, depending on the state. SAWA will specifically allow employers to charge workers for housing and ensure that the majority of farm workers receive the lowest 17th percentile of wages;
• expand the exploitative H-2A program to year-round jobs, displacing U.S. farm workers from stable jobs;
• expand the definition of agriculture so that other non-agricultural employers can use the H-2A program, displacing other U.S. workers; and
• weaken Congressional authority by allowing the Secretary of Labor, currently unconfirmed by Congress, to rewrite and eliminate statutory protections in the H-2A program and by allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to further expand the statutory definition of agriculture.

"This twisted piece of legislation would have long term impacts on America's rural communities, displacing long time resident farm workers who raise families and pay taxes with a huge underclass of foreign guest workers living on company property, unable to change jobs, and permanently excluded from citizenship," said Teresa Romero, President of the United Farm Workers. "Under the terms of this legislation every American job in agriculture is at risk. American agricultural wages will stagnate. Schools in rural areas will face declining enrollment. Entire communities will wither on the vine. Efforts like this put a target on the backs of working class rural Americans, leaving only the biggest growers to rule over the armies of disenfranchised captive workers this bill allows them to import. Every member of Congress supporting this legislation should be ashamed of themselves."

"The UFW Foundation condemns the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act as a brazen attempt to make permanent the Trump administration's wage cuts rule,"said Erica Lomeli Corcoran, Chief Executive Officer of the UFW Foundation. "This bill reads like a wishlight of the corporate agriculture lobby, placing corporate greed over domestic U.S. workers who feed this country. The bill is also illegal-giving the Executive Branch unchecked power to rewrite the minimal legal protections in the H-2A program and expand that abusive program to non-agricultural workers. We encourage Congressional offices to stay off of this bill and stand with farm workers as we challenge the administration's cruel wage cuts rule in federal court."

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