03/19/2026 Farm Workers Rally Against AEWR Rule Change Before Injunction Hearing

Fresno, CA. - Hundreds of farm workers from California, Georgia, Washington, and Texas rallied at federal court on Wednesday afternoon to support a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration rule that undercuts the jobs and wages of U.S. farm workers and expanding the exploitative H2A agricultural guestworker program.

The United Farm Workers and the UFW Foundation hosted the rally outside the first hearing in their lawsuit against the wage cuts. The plaintiffs specifically requested the court issue an injunction that would block the wage cuts from being implemented while the suit proceeds. Farm workers from all over the country came together to oppose the Department of Labor rule that lowers their wages from $3-7 hourly, depending on the state.

According to the government's own estimate, the wage cuts transfer at least $2.46 billion annually from workers to employers and would represent one of the largest wealth transfers from workers to employers in U.S. agricultural history.

"The Trump Administration made their intentions clear. They are looking to let growers steal over 2 billion dollars from farm workers," said UFW President Teresa Romero. "The Trump wage cut is going to drastically reduce wages of farmworkers across the country and threatens to displace existing American farm workers. Our lawsuit is to say NO to the Trump Wage Cuts. I want to recognize the courage of the individual farm workers who joined this lawsuit to sue the the Trump Administration with us. Instead of cutting workers wages, we should be honoring farm workers with the dignity and respect they deserve."

"We are committed to defeating the administration's efforts to cut farm worker wages," said UFW Foundation CEO Erica Lomeli Corcoran. "By callously cutting U.S. farm workers' wages and expanding the H-2A temporary guest worker program, the Trump administration is doing the bidding of large corporate agriculture. And they're doing it at the expense of hard-working Americans who will be unable to afford groceries, rent, and other basic needs for survival because of these cuts. We stopped the first Trump administration from doing this in 2020 and we intend to do the same this time."

"It's important for all farm workers to know that this wage cut doesn't just impact workers on H2A visas - it impacts all of us." said plaintiff Isabel Panfilo, a U.S.-born farm worker from Oxnard . "I pick strawberries at a company that also hires H2A workers. Last year, I made over 19 dollars an hour at the company. This year, I went back to the same job. I'm doing the same tasks picking strawberries I did last year. But this year, they are paying us $16.90 per hour, the state minimum wage. I make over 2 dollars less an hour now. This makes it very difficult for me to make ends meet, to help my family, to achieve the American Dream."

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