According to most recent data, 44 percent of farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented. However, it is hard to know with certainty how accurate that percentage is with some estimates hovering around 50 percent and others as high as 75 percent. The U.S. National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) breaks down farmworker demographics by region with more specificity. The 2015-2019 data show 51 percent of workers in California were considered undocumented and just 19 percent of crop workers were U.S. citizens.
These data explain the continued reliance on the H-2A foreign worker visa program. The program, which requires U.S. agricultural employers to prove a labor need locally before hiring foreign-born workers and providing them with a temporary work visa, has ballooned over the last decade. This year, California had more than 21,000 visas certified for the first two quarters of the fiscal year. So far, more than 232,000 applications have been received for H-2A certifications.
The current unemployment rate in the United States is holding steady at 4.2 percent, or about 7.2 million people. According to estimates, there are about 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S. and it is estimated about 8.3 million of those undocumented people are working. However, as with the exact number of undocumented farmworkers, that number is a “best guess” based on people willing to risk identifying themselves in a survey.
For the sake of argument, if every undocumented working person in the U.S. were deported and every unemployed person were able to take their respective place in the jobs that were vacated by those undocumented people, there would still be approximately 1.1 million jobs vacant. But herein lies the problem: undocumented workers often take jobs U.S. citizens are less likely to take; jobs in construction, agriculture, and hospitality.
During a recent interview Assistant U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said 260,000 arrests had been made and 75 percent of those arrested were found to have been previously convicted of a violent crime. Other reports offer conflicting information, suggesting nearly 44 percent of undocumented people in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have no criminal record. New research also suggests many Americans are taking a dim view of the current handling of undocumented people by the administration.
This year is already an economically difficult one for farms in the U.S. Random raids by ICE have reportedly made farmworkers fearful of showing up for work, putting additional pressure on farms during harvests. This pressure, in turn, translates into less local food being available, putting pressure on shoppers through increased food costs.
A compromise needs to be reached that allows for long-time undocumented workers to be recognized for their contributions to both the labor force and U.S. culture. Simply rounding people up, noting they do not have proper documentation to work in the U.S., and either deporting them or sending them through a lengthy court proceeding, does not leave room for any kind of context into who these individuals are.
Legislation in Congress has attempted to address this issue through the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. The bill, which passed the House in both 2023 and 2024, attempts to address reforms needed to both the domestic and H-2A labor pools. The bill focuses on the most pressing issues in immigration and farmworker labor reform, working to make documentation, access to visas, wages, housing, and certification of workers all more reasonable for workers and their employers.
Rather than creating a regime of fear that discourages existing undocumented people to lurk along the margins of society, we should find ways to celebrate those who have meaningfully contributed to the U.S. with their hard work in our fields, restaurants, and hotels. There is a difference between a hardened criminal and a farmworker showing up each day to pick berries or cut asparagus, we should demand discernment in knowing the difference in the enforcement of our immigration policies.
Pam Lewison is a farmer, Pacific Research Institute fellow, and director of the Washington Policy Center’s Initiative on Agriculture.
