Farm Workers sue Trump Administration over jobs displacement and wages cuts
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UFW and 18 farmworkers sued DOL on Nov. 21, 2025 to reverse H-2A wage cuts
- DOL rule cuts H-2A pay $5 to $7 per hour, shifting $2.46B to employers
- Lawsuit alleges IFR violated APA and creates adverse effects on U.S. farm jobs
The United Farm Workers of America filed suit against the Trump Administration, seeking to reverse a new federal labor rule that allows employers to cut the pay of agriculture guest workers who are in the U.S. legally and temporarily to pick crops.
The union, UFW Foundation and 18 U.S. farmworkers across the nation, including in the Central Valley, filed suit in U.S District Court for the Eastern District of California in Fresno to reverse the Trump administration’s “wage cut rule” announced Oct. 2 by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Under the old rule, agriculture employers were required to pay the higher of the applicable state or federal minimum wage, the prevailing wage in that area, or the regional average farm wage based on a farm labor survey, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate.
The wages differed by region, but were often higher than the state minimum. Farmers have long argued that the program was too costly.
The Trump administration supports the changes as a way to provide a more stable labor supply and to keep farming sustainable, it says.
The new rule uses a revised wage rate formula that critics say will cut the wages of workers in the H-2A guestworker program $5 to $7 per hour. According to the plaintiffs, those wage cuts amount to a transfer of $2.46 billion from workers to employers, annually.
“There is nothing ‘America First’ about expanding exploitative guest worker programs that undercut and displace American workers,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers.
Romero said President Trump’s wage cuts “make it easier for big agricultural corporations to exploit cheap foreign labor through the H-2A program and replace American farmworkers or avoid paying them a fair market wage.”
In California, wages would go from $19.97 to $16.45 an hour, a reduction of $3.52 an hour. It does not include a housing deduction for workers who live in employer provided housing of $3 an hour, bringing the actual work hourly wage to $13.45 which is far below the California minimum wage, according to Erica Lomeli Corcoran, Chief Executive Officer, UFW Foundation.
According to the lawsuit, the H-2A guest worker program has no annual visa cap and has grown since 2005, with nearly 400,000 foreign workers in 2024.
“This litigation challenges a rule that enables U.S. agricultural employers to pay foreign workers significantly less wages,” said Ron Estrada, chief executive officer of Farmworker Justice.
Estrada said the rule “undoubtedly hurt all U.S. workers in agriculture.”
According to the lawsuit, the wage cuts will significantly and irreparably harm both H-2A workers and similarly employed U.S. workers, many already live at or near the poverty line.
Carina Martinez, a U.S. citizen farmworker in Fresno, with four years of experience in packaging grapes and onions is named as one of the plaintiffs. According to the lawsuit, wage cuts threaten Martinez’s ability to pay for food, rent, and health insurance. She has worked in corresponding employment with H-2A workers.
Another plaintiff, Yesenia Contreras Cervantes, a farmworker in Modesto, Calif., has worked in cherries, tomatoes, and apricots for the last 12 years and seven months. According to the lawsuit, through piece wage rate, Contreras Cervantes has received as high as $30.58 per hour. Under the new IFR, her per hour wage could be cut to $16.50, a wage cut of $14.08.
The lawsuit said the IFR’s wage cuts would make Contreras Cervantes unable to pay bills, rent, food, gas, utilities, childcare, and healthcare costs and would need to get a second job.
In 2020, the first Trump administration attempted to implement a similar rule but was stopped by a UFW and UFW Foundation lawsuit. A federal court found the 2020 rule adversely affected the wages and working conditions of American workers, a violation of federal law.
Plaintiffs are represented by Covington & Burling, Farmworker Justice, Martinez Aguilasocho Law, and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
This story was originally published November 25, 2025 at 8:34 AM.
