Sponsors (12)
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for terms and conditions for nonimmigrant workers performing agricultural labor or services, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 7, 2025 by Zoe Lofgren · Last progress May 7, 2025
The bill expands legal pathways, worker protections, housing support, and program modernization for agricultural workers while improving dispute remedies and verification safeguards — but it also imposes significant new compliance costs, verification and privacy risks, caps and instability for seasonal labor, and notable fiscal and administrative tradeoffs that could strain small farms and complicate enforcement during transition.
Long‑term agricultural workers (and their families) can gain temporary lawful status, work authorization, and a clear pathway to permanent residence if they meet multi‑year work requirements, providing legal stability and incentives to remain in farm jobs.
H‑2A program modernization (electronic petition portal, national searchable job registry, concurrent agency review, and faster adjudication) speeds hiring and admission processes and makes it easier for employers and workers to find and fill seasonal agricultural jobs.
Stronger worker protections for H‑2A and dairy workers — higher of applicable wages, housing and safety standards, guaranteed minimum employment pay, transportation reimbursement, anti‑retaliation procedures, contract/pay transparency, and bans on recruiter/employer fees — improve wages, conditions, and reduce exploitative practices.
Small and mid‑size farm employers will face substantial new compliance costs, recordkeeping requirements, bond/surety obligations, and potentially high civil/criminal penalties across multiple program elements, raising operating costs and administrative burdens.
Reliance on centralized electronic verification and new verification processes creates real risk of false tentative/final nonconfirmations and privacy/photo‑matching harms that can cause wrongful job loss, income disruption, and surveillance/discrimination against authorized workers.
Caps, numerical reservations, and limits in the H‑2A/portable programs (including a 10,000 portable cap and regional/sector set‑asides) plus tight timelines for maintaining status can constrain labor supply, create uneven access across regions/crops, and increase job instability for seasonal workers.
Based on analysis of 20 sections of legislative text.
Creates a certified agricultural worker status, overhauls the H‑2A program, mandates a modern verification System, and funds farmworker housing with new employer obligations and penalties.
Creates a new temporary "certified agricultural worker" status with dependent benefits, expands and rewrites rules for the H‑2A temporary agricultural worker program, and mandates a modern electronic employment‑eligibility verification system with phased employer compliance. The bill also funds and reforms USDA farmworker housing programs, sets worker safety and employer‑compliance requirements (including new civil penalties and protections), and centralizes Labor and DHS roles in administering agricultural labor admissions and certifications. Affecting migrant and seasonal farmworkers, agricultural employers, state workforce agencies, and rural housing programs, the measure combines immigration relief for some unauthorized agricultural workers with major changes to guest‑worker administration, mandatory electronic verification, employer protections and liabilities, and targeted housing and safety investments for farmworker communities.