ttorney General Ellison this week led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in a comment letter in opposition to a new proposed Department of Labor rule that would largely rescind an existing 2024 rule that strengthened protections for workers with H-2A visas, who are foreign nationals who are temporarily here as agricultural workers. These workers are not immigrants to the United States: rather, they are citizens of other countries who intend to return to their countries after the work is done. They apply to work temporarily in U.S. agriculture: U.S. employers apply to the program and hire these workers for limited periods.

The protections in the existing rule — which are also intended to protect the wages and terms of employment for U.S.-based workers — were necessary because the rapid growth of the H-2A program resulted in exploitation of foreign temporary agricultural workers, unsafe housing and working conditions, and a prevalence of human and labor trafficking throughout the H-2A program.