Is the Trump administration turning to migrant workers to solve the US farm labour shortage?
The Trump administration is turning to migrant workers to address a growing farm labour shortage across the United States. As stricter immigration enforcement reduces the available workforce, American farmers are increasingly relying on the H-2A visa programme to hire temporary foreign workers for seasonal agricultural jobs
Industry groups warn that without migrant labour, crops could go unharvested and food prices could rise. Critics, however, argue that expanding temporary worker programmes does not solve deeper immigration and labour policy challenges facing the US agricultural sector.
In this report, we examine why US farms depend on migrant workers, how the labour shortage is affecting food production, and what the Trump administration's policies could mean for farmers, workers and the US food supply chain.
