- Trump's Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced an upcoming migrant visa policy shift.
- The policy aims to streamline H-2A visa applications, aiding American farmers' labor needs.
- Utah farmers face challenges with current H-2A limitations, impacting their workforce and operations.
SANTA FE, N.M. — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins previewed a 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."
