- Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced an emergency office to fast track permits for migrant work visas.
- The changes would make the program easier for small and mid-sized farms to take advantage of.
- Utah farmers have experienced difficulty in applying for H-2A visas in recent months.
SANTA FE, N.M. — U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced plans on Tuesday to create a new federal office to speed up migrant work visas in response to a question from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
Chavez-DeRemer told a bipartisan panel at the Western Governors Association in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that the Trump administration is responding to concerns from U.S. farmers that it has become harder to obtain visas for migrant workers.
“Food security is national security,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “Understanding that closing that border was important to the United States of America, but we do need the workforce.”
Chavez-DeRemer outlined the creation of an “emergency agency” to handle visa application backlogs within her office that will serve as a “one-stop-shop” to approve visa applications “on the spot.”
The initiative will include the creation of upgraded IT systems that will allow employers to log on to an internet dashboard where they can track the progress of their visa permits.
“We’re going to see that change come across fairly rapidly because that’s the problem, and they want a solution, and they wanted it yesterday, and now we’re finally going to mean it,” Chavez-DeRemer said. ”And then we’ll work with Congress on the longer term issues of immigration reform."
In response to Chavez-DeRemer’s announcement, Cox said “I love it.” There are many agricultural jobs that Americans do not want to do, according to Cox. And now that the border is secure, it’s time to “streamline ... getting workers in here.”
Impact of ICE raids on agriculture
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins previewed the Trump administration policy shift on Monday that would expand access to immigrant work visas used by American farmers.
The upcoming announcement will include reforms to make it easier to apply for the H-2A visa program in line with President Donald Trump’s dual objectives of enforcing immigration laws and supporting the food supply chain, according to Rollins.
“The president has remained very focused on the goal of a 100% legal workforce in our country, but, at the same time, ensure we have a safe and secure food supply,” Rollins said in response to a question from the Deseret News.
Media reports identified Rollins as one of the key influences behind the Trump administration’s decision earlier this month to redirect Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts away from the agriculture sector.
The Department of Agriculture has estimated that from 2020 to 2022 around 42% of crop farmworkers “held no work authorization” to be in the U.S.
Recent workplace raids of fields in California led growers to report that 30-60% of workers had stopped showing up for fear of deportation, the New York Times reported.
Rollins reportedly called the President Donald Trump and relayed concerns that this disruption would impact the country’s food supply.
On June 12, ICE agents were told to pause “all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”
Why visa programs matter
But deportations aren’t the only concern for Utah farmers, according to Terry Camp, the vice president of public policy at the Utah Farm Bureau.
“We have had producers here in Utah struggling to get H-2A applications approved that have not had similar issues in the past,” Camp said.
Many farmers rely partially or entirely on seasonal migrant labor to harvest their fields because it is difficult to find employees who are citizens, the Deseret News has reported.
Now that border crossings have come to a halt, Camp said Rollins could use her influence to emphasize helping farmers get the laborers they need.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Western Governors Association, Rollins said that she and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who will also be speaking at the event, were “on calls all weekend” working on modifications to visa programs that will be announced “in a day or two.”
“There is a lot we can do to make the process easier, more efficient, to ensure that, especially for our smaller to mid-size farms that don’t have the armies of lawyers,” Rollins said.
Rollins was on a phone call Monday morning “with the White House” talking about how to expand the legal workforce, she said, because doing so will help Trump’s priority of supporting American farmers.
The Trump administration will “streamline the current process, obviously within current law,” so that farmers can secure the labor force they need “efficiently, effectively and not cost prohibitively.”
The President of the Utah Farm Bureau, ValJay Rigby, said in a statement to the Deseret News, that the wage calculations and seasonal limitations outlined in the current H-2A visa program have made its use increasingly unaffordable for farmers even as they face workforce shortages domestically.
“Labor is among the biggest limiting factors in American agriculture,” Rigby said. “The current H-2A program fails to meet the needs of all farmers. We need congress to expand H-2A to allow year-round workers for dairy farmers and others who need help all year.“