PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tueday, June 24, 2025
CONTACT
Francisco Díaz, francisco@cdmigrante.org
Baltimore, Md. — Last Friday, the Department of Labor (DOL) quietly suspended enforcement of its 2024 rule which strengthened protections for farmworkers recruited to work in the United States through the H-2A agricultural visa program. Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM) is outraged by this abominable decision that puts thousands of workers at higher risk of abuse and exploitation.
This decision to suspend enforcement comes in the midst of increased immigration enforcement actions that are leading to the increased use by employers of the H-2A agricultural guestworker visa program — a program already plagued with abuse. Now is the time to strengthen worker protections in the deeply flawed H-2A agricultural visa program, not leave workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
By deciding to ignore the rules, the DOL is denying farmworkers their rights to safe transportation at work and to receive visitors in their housing without fear of retaliation. And the DOL is also eliminating much-needed protections against recruitment fraud, retaliation and human trafficking.
The H-2A temporary visa program is a program rife with abuse. In our Ripe for Reform survey-based report, we found that 100% of workers interviewed reported at least one serious violation of their rights. 94% reported three or more violations.
Farmworkers who participate in the H-2A visa program have fought for years –even decades— for strengthened protections against retaliation, fraud and trafficking. And now the Trump administration is dismissing them and their hard-won protections.
Suspending the H-2A rule only benefits big agriculture corporations and low-road employers who’d rather keep workers isolated and susceptible to exploitation.