{"id":62566,"date":"2025-03-21T14:30:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T22:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=62566"},"modified":"2025-03-31T08:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T16:00:18","slug":"federal-cuts-and-funding-pauses-add-to-farmers-labor-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2025\/03\/21\/federal-cuts-and-funding-pauses-add-to-farmers-labor-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"H-2A Guestworker Program Impacted by Stalled USDA Payments, Cuts to USAID"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 31, 2025: <\/i><\/b>The influential National Council of Agricultural Employers sent Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins <\/i>a letter<\/i><\/a> asking her to investigate the status of Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Grant Program payments and \u201cthaw\u201d any funds that are frozen.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>

It\u2019s early March in eastern Pennsylvania, a time when George Brittenburg describes work on the farm as akin to \u201ctrying to wake up a big giant.\u201d Brittenburg grows organic vegetables and raises livestock across 200 acres, and he needs help to shake off the winter and get things moving again. Like many farmers<\/a>, in past years, he struggled to find people to do that. <\/p><\/div>

\n

So, in 2016, he started bringing in help through the federal government\u2019s farm guestworker program,\u00a0called H-2A<\/a>. He\u2019s not alone: In the past decade, the number of H-2A workers hired by American farmers\u00a0has tripled<\/a>. Many see it as the best pathway to hire immigrant workers legally, but workers can also face exploitation, since their legal status, housing, and often transportation are all linked to their employers.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Brittenburg took time out of the growing season and invested resources into applying for a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant opportunity he thought might help even further. Biden\u2019s USDA pitched the\u00a0Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Program (FLSP)<\/a> as a pilot project to improve conditions for workers while easing the strain some farmers experience paying and housing guestworkers. Brittenburg was looking forward to financial assistance that would allow him to bring in additional help and offer employees benefits like paid sick days.<\/p>\n

Now, grant funding has been paused. With no clear answers as to when that might change, he\u2019s not sure what to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I feel pretty uncertain about the future and how to forecast. For our farm and for us, it is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Brittenburg and other grantees told Civil Eats that since Trump took office, the program has been frozen. They received emails from their contacts at the USDA saying office hours were canceled until further notice. They have asked questions about whether the program will be canceled and say they have not been given clear answers as to whether or when the funding might resume. Some have submitted requests for reimbursements and have not been paid. Others are reluctant to spend the money because they\u2019re unsure if they\u2019ll be paid back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I feel pretty uncertain about the future and how to forecast, and I don\u2019t really want to be focused on that while I\u2019m getting ready to plant,\u201d Brittenburg said. \u201cI know a lot of people are going through a lot right now and this isn\u2019t the biggest deal, but for our farm and for us, it is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, some farmers have encountered challenges bringing their workers in because of ripple effects from the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID had been supporting the recruitment of guestworkers from countries in northern Central America and partnered with the USDA to help farmers\u00a0bring in workers.<\/p>\n

USAID and the H-2A Worker Pool<\/h4>\n<\/div>

While most agricultural guestworkers come from Mexico, USAID began working to expand recruitment from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in 2019, during President Trump\u2019s first term, according to a former USAID official, who agreed to speak to Civil Eats as long as he could remain anonymous. <\/p><\/div>

\n

But it didn\u2019t pick up steam until the Biden administration\u00a0made it a priority<\/a>, he said. At an event in September 2022, USAID Administrator Samantha Power\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the agency\u2019s involvement was meant to meet the labor needs of American farmers, improve labor protections for workers coming to the U.S., and \u201calleviate the conditions that may spur someone to resort to dangerous, irregular migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A screenshot of a USAID fact sheet<\/a> summarizing the work they were doing to improve H-2A and H-2B recruitment in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

To that end, USAID\u00a0provided funding and support<\/a> to those Central American governments to try to make them the go-to resource for American farmers, at no cost. USAID partnered with the USDA to require some farmers, like those in the FLSP program, to begin recruiting from those countries as one way to boost the effort. However, according to the former USAID official, the goal was much more broad: To create a new worker pipeline for all farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat USAID was really focused on was how to have the labor ministries of these countries be able to facilitate that recruitment,\u201d explained Joe Martinez, the CEO of Cierto Global, a farm labor contractor. Martinez co-founded Cierto to improve practices within H-2 program recruitment, which notoriously can\u00a0involve unscrupulous actors and little oversight<\/a>, and worked closely with USAID and individuals on the ground in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala who were involved in these projects.<\/p>\n

In February, President Trump slashed staff at USAID and\u00a0moved<\/a>\u00a0what was left of the agency into the Department of State. He\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0his administration would eliminate 90 percent of USAID\u2019s foreign contracts.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources with close knowledge of the programs said that included guestworker recruitment contracts in those three countries, but Civil Eats was unable to verify whether all USAID contracts for H-2 recruitment have been canceled. A spokesperson at the Department of State referred Civil Eats to the USDA. The USDA did not respond to emailed questions.<\/p>\n

However, the former USAID official and Martinez both said that if the funding to those ministries is gone, it could lead to fewer guestworkers coming in from those countries to work on American farms, more individuals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally to find work, and recruiters who use illegal and unsafe practices stepping in to fill the gap. As to improving safe, efficient recruitment from those countries, \u201cWhat ends up happening is you pretty much cut everyone off at their knees and there\u2019s no way to facilitate this work,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Farmers in Limbo<\/h4>\n<\/div>

Matthew Fitzgerald grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and beans on 3,000 acres in McLeod County, Minnesota. \u201cMy first choice is to have domestic folks, but unemployment is less than 4 percent in our county. There just aren\u2019t people that want to do this work,\u201d he said. He started hiring H-2A workers in 2021 and thought the FLSP program might help him use the guestworker program more effectively, to \u201cbe a better employer and then find better workers.\u201d <\/p><\/div>

\n<\/div>
\"Matthew<\/a>

Matthew Fitzgerald in his fields in Minnesota. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

In response to the funding freeze, Fitzgerald compiled a list of the\u00a060 farmers<\/a> across the country who received FLSP grants in 2024 and sent out an email. On Wednesday, March 16, they gathered on a call to discuss their experiences and what could be done. More than half of the grantees participated, calling in from greenhouses, living rooms, and pickup trucks, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s folks that are really contemplating bankruptcy if they don\u2019t get these funds. There are very serious situations,\u201d he said. \u201cSomebody messaged me and said they spent $400,000 on improving their housing for their workers and were expecting all the funds to go towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s folks that are really contemplating bankruptcy if they don’t get these funds. There are very serious situations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Several other farmers in the program have already spent money, submitted for reimbursements, and are now waiting for payments ranging from $50,000 to $600,000. While Fitzgerald hasn\u2019t requested a reimbursement yet, he said he planned his financial obligations for the upcoming season based on the expected cashflow. The way the program was designed, when farmers hit certain milestones, they\u2019re eligible for payments. But he and several other farmers who spoke to Civil Eats said they\u2019re not sure if they should invest time and resources into reaching those milestones if the payments might never arrive.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue, he said, is what might happen if the USDA decides to cancel the program altogether. Enrolling in the program required the farmers to add the steps they were taking to improve labor practices on their farms into their legal contracts with the Department of Labor. So, for instance, if a farmer included housing upgrades, overtime, or paid sick days, it\u2019s now in the contract, regardless of whether they receive the promised funding in the future. \u201cEveryone who received this grant has made legal commitments to the Department of Labor, and so those are non-negotiable,\u201d he said. \u201cThose aren\u2019t things we can cancel, so we\u2019re going to be up a creek if they say, ‘Well, we\u2019re not paying.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Broader Farm Labor Impacts<\/h4>\n<\/div>

Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht has been growing vegetables, berries, and flowers on the east end of Long Island for almost 25 years. About five years ago, she began bringing in help from Mexico through the H-2A program. When she signed her FLSP contract last year, she committed to hiring two new guestworkers from Central America. During the process of recruiting workers from El Salvador, she worked directly with the labor ministry there, and officials assigned her a lead to help her through the process. <\/p><\/div>

\n

In February, when she reached out to check in on the status of her workers, the individual informed her in an email that the program that employed him was funded by USAID \u201cand has been suspended until further notice.\u201d Then he stopped replying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re basically under a contractual agreement to hire them through the ministry, but the ministry is not active, which basically leaves us just having no idea what we\u2019re supposed to do, and our people are supposed to be here in two weeks,\u201d she said in early March.<\/p>\n

March 15, the day the workers were supposed to arrive, came and went. She has since been able to get in touch with the workers and believes they\u2019re waiting for interview dates and approval. But everything is murky\u2014and even if they arrive soon, the delay will impact the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

Other farmers in the program who recruited from Guatemala have not had the same issues getting their workers into the country, and it\u2019s unclear how significantly USAID cuts might impact H-2A recruitment more broadly.<\/p>\n

Between 2021 and 2023,\u00a0according to USAID records<\/a>, the number of H-2 visas issued to workers from the three Central American countries nearly quadrupled, from 5,000 to 28,000. Most of those workers were on H-2B visas, which cover some food-system jobs but primarily focus on other kinds of work, including landscaping and construction.<\/p>\n

The numbers of H-2A workers coming in to work on American farms were still extremely small, but they did tick up. According to Department of Labor records, for example, about 1,200 additional H-2A workers were recruited from Guatemala in 2023 compared to 2021.<\/p>\n

The Benefits of Recruiting in Central America<\/h4>\n<\/div>

The former USAID official said while the numbers were (and still are) small, the intention was to systemically diversify where agricultural workers come from so that over time,\u00a0if fewer workers come from Mexico<\/a>, the farm labor shortage won\u2019t get worse. <\/p><\/div>

\n

“Everyone who received this grant has made legal commitments to the Department of Labor, and so those are non-negotiable. We’re going to be up a creek if they say, \u2018Well, we’re not paying.\u2019”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

USAID also saw the programs as important economic development work, since guestworkers bring money back to their home countries, potentially decreasing the need for foreign aid and the number of migrants attempting to leave their countries to enter the U.S. without legal authorization.<\/p>\n

Martinez at Cierto Global partnered with USAID on recruitment work in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala because he started his company with a similar ethos. \u201cOne of the areas that folks decided to home in on was, \u2018How can we create legal migration pathways that might prevent this [irregular] type of migration and that would encourage folks to be able to come back and create rural economic opportunities?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He thought improving recruitment, where the whole process starts, could lead to better conditions for workers and better outcomes for farmers. To do that, Cierto partners with community organizations in the countries workers are coming from, does risk assessments, and hosts worker interviews and trainings. But Cierto is the exception, he said.<\/p>\n

One of\u00a0the big issues with H-2A and H-2B programs<\/a>\u00a0is that some recruiters use illegal practices and there is little oversight. \u201cIn those northern Central American countries before USAID was helping facilitate this, it was common practice to charge workers, and so now those are the only actors left to conduct this work,\u201d Martinez said. Now that the USAID program is gone, he said, \u201cI would say that it\u2019s going to prevent the growth of interest [in recruiting] from these countries, in large part because there\u2019s no trusted framework or partners that can kind of facilitate and have eyes on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A screenshot of DOGE\u2019s record of the State Department contract, meant to fight H-2A fraud, that DOGE says it cancelled. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a special commission created by President Trump purporting to cut federal spending,\u00a0also reports<\/a>\u00a0that it canceled a Department of State contract with a marketing company in El Salvador to prevent H-2A fraud perpetrated by, as the report put it, \u201ctransnational criminal organizations and\/or gangs.\u201d The information DOGE provides on contract cancellations is incomplete, so it\u2019s unclear whether the work had already been finished or was still in progress. The marketing company did not respond to requests for comment.Ffor Farmers<\/p>\n

For Farmers, an Uncertain Future<\/h4>\n<\/div>

Martinez was expecting USAID grant funding to help facilitate his H-2A work this year but said he was informed the funding was canceled. \u201cLuckily, I had not incorporated that into my budget. It would have been devastating,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I know at least a dozen organizations that have had to lay off workers on the U.S. side as well as in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.\u201d <\/p><\/div>

\n

The long-term impacts of the shuttering of USAID support for guest farmworker programs will become apparent in the months and years to come. Meanwhile, back on Long Island, as temperatures rise and signs of spring appear, Kaplan-Walbrecht is focused only on when her workers will arrive and whether the financial assistance her FLSP contract with USDA will ever materialize. If it doesn\u2019t, she said the farm will take a hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be able to afford other things, whether it\u2019s making repairs to equipment or other things,\u201d she said. As to her future in farming, \u201cWe\u2019re not going do it if we can\u2019t be profitable. It\u2019s too much work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brittenburg in Pennsylvania and Fitzgerald in Minnesota are feeling similar pressure. \u201cFarming is so uncertain already,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cWe need workers. The crop goes in the ground in a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 31, 2025: The influential National Council of Agricultural Employers sent Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins a letter asking her to investigate the status of Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Grant Program payments and \u201cthaw\u201d any funds that are frozen. 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