A federal judge in Kentucky has rejected the expanded protections the Biden-Harris administration has put in place for foreign farm workers coming to the US under H-2A visas.
On Monday, US District Judge Danny Reeves agreed with Kentucky farmers and Republican attorneys general in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Alabama who said the new laws include giving foreign workers collective bargaining rights. Reeves said Congress, not the Biden-Harris administration, will have to decide whether to allow H-2A visa holders the right to association.
Those new rules, implemented by the US Department of Labor in April, expand protections for H-2A visa holders, including requiring employers to ensure that they will not intimidate, intimidate or discriminate against foreign farm workers for “union-related activities” and “collaborative activities.” or protection relating to wages and working conditions.”
“In perhaps the most obvious overreach of authority, the Final Rule seeks to extend many rights to H-2A workers that they did not previously enjoy through worker voice and empowerment,” Judge Reeves wrote. “DOL is justifying this expansion effort as an effort to prevent ‘unfair treatment’ of H-2A workers by employers to protect American workers in the same environment.”
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Temporary agricultural workers with H-2A work visas wait in line at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on their way to seasonal jobs in the United States on March 22, 2022 in Tijuana, Mexico. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“The Final Rule does not implicitly create collective bargaining rights for H-2A agricultural workers through the ‘prohibition’ it imposes on their employers,” Reeves wrote. “Incorporating these provisions as mere extensions of non-retaliation policies, the DOL is attempting to grant H-2A workers strong rights without Congressional authorization.”
Under a preliminary injunction issued by a Georgia federal judge, the new laws were already blocked in 17 states. The Reeves ruling does not apply nationwide.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman speaks during the Fancy Farm picnic in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, on Aug. 5, 2023. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Congress created the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program in 1986 through the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which allows employers to hire foreign farm workers on a temporary, seasonal basis, when there is a shortage of US workers to fill needed positions. It includes protections for American workers, including setting a minimum wage for foreign workers under the program.
A barn and stone stacks outside the Lexington Horse District, Kentucky. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the Biden-Harris administration’s rules could have caused “serious and irreparable harm to farmers just trying to get by and bring food to Kentucky’s dinner tables.”
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“We should be working to help Kentucky farmers, not put them out of business. This illegal and unnecessary legislation from the Biden-Harris Administration would have made it harder to get farm produce on grocery store shelves and would have raised already high prices for families,” Coleman said in a statement. “We will continue.” and doing the right thing to stand up for Kentucky farmers.”
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