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By Questen Inghram, Yakima Herald-Republic

A federal judge has ruled in favor of the United Farm Workers in their lawsuit against the Trump administration's wage cuts for foreign agricultural guestworkers in the H-2A visa program. 

There were nearly 400,000 of these workers in the country last year. As of the end of March, the Department of Homeland Security had approved just over 25,000 H-2A workers in Washington state.

In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor changed the wage rate, effectively lowering wages from $3 to $7 per hour, depending on location. The change also allowed employers providing housing to guestworkers to take housing costs out of their hourly wage for the first time. In Washington, that translates to an additional $2.49 per hour taken off their wages. 

The changes would transfer $2.46 billion from workers to employers annually, according to the notice in the Federal Register.

The following month, the United Farm Workers, the UFW Foundation, and 18 farmworkers from around the state filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of California. Last week, Eastern California District Judge Kirk Sherriff agreed with the UFW that many of the changes were arbitrary and capricious, and should have been adopted through a normal public comment process. His ruling allows the changes to stay in place until the Labor Department can rewrite a replacement rule. 

Findings

The focus of the case is the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, a part of the program meant to ensure that use of foreign guestworkers does not adversely effect the wages of U.S. farmworkers.

H-2A workers must be paid the highest of five wage rates: an Adverse Effect Wage Rate, a prevailing wage rate, a collective bargaining wage rate, the federal minimum wage or the state minimum wage. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture ended its Farm Labor Survey last year, the wage rate needed to be calculated with different data. Labor chose its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistic survey, which does not survey farms, but does survey farm contractors. It will begin surveying farms in 2027.

The judge ruled that the Labor Department had "good cause" to move quickly to find a new wage data source, but that the circumstance did not justify other changes the federal government made. 

The department also implemented a two-tier wage system, a housing deduction from wages, and a "greater than 50%" rule that would mean a guestworker would be paid the wage associated with the work that consumes a majority of their time. 

Reaction 

Labor advocates, who largely believe that the growth of the program displaces American workers, celebrated the move.

"This decision recognizes the important and essential work of the men and women who put food on our tables and that farm workers should get paid fairly,” Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, said in a statement. 

Crisanto Serrano, a Sunnyside farmworker and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that it has been harder for local farmworkers to find jobs as the guestworkers grow in numbers. 

"I hope this court decision will protect our wages and our jobs here in the Yakima Valley for a long time," Serrano said. 

The Worker and Farmer Labor Association, a nonprofit grower organization based in Lacey, helps supply H-2A labor in Washington. It is one of the largest employers of the guestworkers in the country and was disappointed by the decision.

"While the ruling leaves current wage rates in place for now, it creates new uncertainty for agricultural employers by reopening questions about future wage rates and potential backpay obligations," said Scott Dilley, WAFLA spokesperson. 

Dilley said that the ruling will cause wages to go up by an uncertain amount at a time when farmers are facing significant economic pressures, making it harder for them to make decisions and remain competitive. 

Dilley said that the decision reinforces the need for a proposed piece of legislation, the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act, to reform the program and codify changes. 

"The future of U.S. agriculture should not be dictated by ongoing litigation and regulatory instability," Dilley said. 

An inquiry to a Department of Labor spokesperson was not immediately returned.