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The recent COVID-19 pandemic disrupted economies around the world, leading to labor shortages across many industries. As the health crisis subsided, most labor markets returned to normal, with some exceptions, notably the agricultural sector. While this industry had already been dealing with limited labor availability for decades, the COVID-19 crisis brought the issue to public notice. Farmworkers were among the first to be declared essential, and immigrant farmworkers were still allowed into the United States despite restrictive immigration policies that closed the country almost entirely to newcomers. This research paper examines the critical role of immigrant farmworkers in U.S. agriculture, highlighting their importance in maintaining food production for a growing population. It also analyzes the growth of the H-2A and TN visa programs and examines the challenges, trends, and opportunities that can help inform effective agricultural labor policies.

Introduction

Whose hands are harvesting fresh produce in the U.S.?

Where do they come from?

What paths do they take to get there?

This paper explores these and other questions and explains the huge role played by immigrants in the U.S. agricultural sector. It begins by describing the problem of farmworker shortages. It then analyzes the role that different kinds of workers play in agricultural production - from foreign farm laborers, both undocumented and legal, to highly skilled foreign workers - and the available visas. It also outlines the rise in food imports from Mexico. Finally, the paper concludes with a general reflection on the consequences of ignoring the deepening agricultural labor shortages and the threats they pose to the nation as well as the need for immigration policy reform to sustain agriculture in the U.S.

Agricultural Labor Shortages in the US

During most of the last century, there was a relative abundance of agricultural workers, leading to lower farm wages and production costs, and fewer incentives for growers to invest in labor-saving technologies. The situation today is different: Farmers across the country are finding it difficult to recruit and retain workers. As a result, farm wages have increased both in absolute terms and relative to other occupations. For example, back in 1990, the average farm wage for nonsupervisory crop and livestock workers in real values was just over half the average real wage in the nonfarm sector for private nonsupervisory occupations. By 2022 the ratio had increased to 60%, as the gap between farm and nonfarm wages narrowed.

However, compensation increases have not been enough to lure domestic workers back into agriculture. Agricultural jobs tend to be physically demanding, pose risks such as pesticide exposure, are often in remote areas, and do not offer a career ladder as other fields do. Because manual labor is not generally considered a socially prestigious occupation, even in periods of high unemployment and recessions, American-born workers do not view agriculture as a viable employment option. At the same time, economic and population growth have increased the demand for fresh produce (fruits and vegetables), the production of which mostly still requires human labor. In this context, immigrants play a vital role in keeping the agricultural sector working. Today, foreign workers - both documented and undocumented - play a disproportionate role in ensuring a reliable supply of food for American households (Figure 1). The farm labor scarcity problem is particularly acute for sectors such as specialty crops (fruits and vegetables), the green industry, and livestock, which are heavily reliant on labor. Mechanization is a potential alternative, but it is capital intensive, still in primitive stages, and may take a long time to be a practical solution.

To make matters worse, the number of migrant workers - both shuttle and follow-the-crop - has declined steadily since the 1990s, while the number of settled non-migrant workers has grown. This is particularly damaging to those agricultural sectors that require a mobile workforce. The reduction in the number of farmworkers is due to a variety of factors, including an increase in border and internal immigration enforcement and the aging of agricultural workers. Moreover, economic growth in Mexico has decreased the interest of Mexican workers in agricultural jobs, both in Mexico and the U.S., as the income gap between the two countries has lessened.

Undocumented Versus Legal Farmworkers

Historically, undocumented migrants working in the agricultural sector have faced a wage penalty of 3% to 24% compared to workers with legal status, along with greater income volatility during recessions. Upon regularizing their situation, farmworkers become more mobile and, particularly in the case of young men early in their careers, this means they can transition to better job matches and higher earnings away from the crop fields. Legal status allows workers to move to other sectors that offer better wages and working conditions than agriculture, as well as to pursue self-employment opportunities.

Figure 1 - Legal Status of Crop Farmworkers: 1991-2020

Source: Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture.
Note: Fiscal year figures used. The percentage values for each year are 3-year moving averages to smooth fluctuations due to small sample sizes. "U.S. born" includes those born in Puerto Rico.

The substantial size of the undocumented farm labor force has prompted significant efforts to enact immigration reforms; however, the U.S. Congress has not passed any major immigration legislation dealing exclusively with farmworkers since the Bracero Program (1942-64) (Table 1). The most recent legalization law - the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) passed in 1986 - granted legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants, including farmworkers.

Table 1 - Major Factors Affecting Immigration and US Farm Labor Supply

Legal Foreign Farmworkers: H-2A Visa Program

The steady decline in the supply of native-born and undocumented farmworkers has been only partially offset by a significant increase in demand for legal foreign agricultural workers. The H-2A program, the channel to bring agricultural labor to U.S. farms, has experienced rapid growth since its inception. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 introduced the H-2 visa category for unskilled foreign labor coming to perform temporary jobs as "guest" (rather than permanent) workers. In 1986, IRCA split this category into two groups: H-2A was limited to agriculture and numbers were not capped; H-2B was designed for nonagricultural work such as landscaping and groundskeeping and a yearly cap was put in place. The cap in fiscal year 2023 was 66,000 workers.

The H-2A visa program started slowly - only 44 visas were issued in 1987, the first year. By 1992 approximately 6,500 H-2A visas were granted, while three decades later, in 2023, the number had grown to more than 300,000 (Figure 2). H-2A workers can be found in every state in the country, but the demand for this program is concentrated in areas where labor-intensive agriculture dominates. The top five states in recent years have been, in descending order, Florida, California, Georgia, Washington, and North Carolina (Figure 3). As of today, H-2A workers constitute roughly 10% of the crop farm labor force in the U.S. The top commodities relying on H-2A labor are berries, apples, and tobacco.

Figure 2 - H-2A Visas Issued: 1992-2023

Figure 3 - Top Five States Employing H-2A Workers: 2021-23

Countries of Origin

It is noteworthy that the second largest country of origin for H-2A workers in 2022 was South Africa, with just under 10,000 visas granted to individuals from that nation. Employers often hire South African workers for their English proficiency, especially for more complex tasks such as operating heavy machinery. These workers are typically employed on farms with highly mechanized production, growing crops like corn and soybeans, in such states as Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Figure 4 - Top Five Origin Countries of H-2A Workers in 2022

Demand Keeps Rising

Documenting the extent of agricultural labor shortages - the difference between the supply and demand for workers - is challenging, in part due to the large number of undocumented individuals, who are hard to track. Therefore, there is limited data on how much the number of available farmworkers has decreased. However, two reliable qualitative indicators suggest that finding dependable labor in agriculture is becoming increasingly difficult:

1. The rapid increase in demand for H-2A workers despite the high costs associated with this program - more detail on this follows.

2. H-2A workers' allowed entrance into the country by two different administrations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regarding this second point, it is worth noting that the U.S. came close to a complete shutdown of immigration in 2020 (when the health crisis began) due to the following actions:

Embassies and consulates abroad were closed, barring legal avenues for migration.

Measures were put in place to seal land borders to undocumented immigration.

Individuals who tried to enter the country illegally were quickly expelled.

The H-2A program was the only major visa type that experienced growth between 2019 and 2020 (Figure 5). Despite tougher immigration restrictions, 4% more H-2A visas were issued in 2020 than in 2019. During this period, the total number of newcomers decreased substantially, with all the other large categories experiencing a sharp decline in the number of issuances:

H-1B for highly skilled foreign workers went down by 34%.

F-1 and J-1 for international students and foreign visitors, respectively, each plummeted by 69%.

B1 and B2 for business and tourism, respectively, went down by 59%.

The reduction in visas was seen across the spectrum of skills. H-2B visa issuances for low skilled manual nonagricultural workers declined by 37%, and the number of new permits for individuals of "extraordinary ability" entering under O-1 visas was cut in half.

Figure 5 - Change in Issuances of Selected Visa Types: 2019-20

Rules on Hiring H-2A Workers

Hiring an H-2A worker can be a long and complicated process that involves multiple steps, outlined below (Figure 6).

Labor Certification: The employer - an individual farmer or a farm labor contractor - must apply for the position to be certified by the Department of Labor. Labor certification (LC) is a lengthy process in which employers must demonstrate that they were unable to find U.S. workers to fill the position in question. When the H-2A program was created, legislators were concerned about preventing foreign workers from displacing American laborers, so potential employers are required to show that no U.S. workers were found to be capable, willing, and available to perform the job.

Petition: If the certification is granted, the next step is to submit a petition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirming that the offered position is seasonal (i.e., temporary rather than permanent) in nature. An H-2A worker can be admitted up to one week before starting employment and has up to one month to leave the country after the job ends. An employer can request an extension on an individual H-2A worker's employment in increments of up to one year, but the total time a worker can hold this visa consecutively is three years. After that, there is a waiting period before they can reapply for a new H-2A visa.

Visa and Admission: If DHS approves the petition, the worker must apply for a visa abroad and be later admitted at a port of entry.

Figure 6 - Hiring Process for H-2A Workers

Compensating H-2A Workers: Adverse Effect Wage Rates

When the H-2A visa was created from the original H-2 program, a provision was added to prevent foreign workers from depressing local market wages and negatively impacting American agricultural workers - it was described as an "adverse effect." IRCA 1986 established that employers must pay H-2A workers at least the highest of the following:

1. A minimum wage known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR).

2. The prevailing wage.

3. The prevailing piece wage.

4. The wage agreed upon a collective bargain.

5. The federal or state minimum wage.

Although AEWRs differ by state, they are generally set to a level above the state's minimum wage. They are calculated as the average hourly earnings of nonsupervisory field and livestock laborers in each state during the previous year, as determined by farm labor surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In February 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor introduced a new methodology specifying that, instead of having only one AEWR paid to all H-2A workers in a state, there should be different wage tiers in which workers performing more specialized tasks, such as driving a truck, should be paid more, leading to some rates being determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' surveys. In 2024, AEWRs range from a minimum of $14.53 an hour in states, such as Arkansas and Louisiana, up to $19.75 in California (Figure 7).

In addition to the cumbersome recruiting process and the wage bill, employers must provide their H-2A employees with transportation, housing, government fees, food, and compensation insurance. These costs can amount to $15,000 or more each season per worker, which has led to frequent complaints about the affordability of the program and proposals to modify it. The transportation requirement includes bringing workers to the U.S. and returning them to their home country. Farmers must also transport workers between their housing and the worksite.

Figure 7 - AEWR of H-2A Workers

Given the difficult hiring process and the high costs associated with employing H-2A workers, the program is effectively only a viable and affordable option for large scale farms. Only companies with in-house legal immigration experts hire workers directly. Instead, most individuals are brought to the U.S. by employer associations and other farm labor contractors that charge a fee - normally around $1,000 per worker per season - to handle all the details of the legal process. Around two thirds (65.2%) of American farmers hire one to nine H-2A workers. In contrast, large firms (about 1% of employers) hire, on average, more than 500 workers (Figure 8).

Figure 8 - H-2A Jobs and Employer Size Distribution, Fiscal Year 2022

Source: Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture.
Note: Due to rounding, the percentages do not add up to exactly 100.

Highly Skilled Foreign Workers in Agriculture: TN Visa

While the TN visa program was not created specifically for the agricultural sector, many agriculture-related professions are included in the list of 63 allowed occupations: veterinarians, animal scientists, animal breeders, agriculturists (including agronomists and food scientists), apiculturists, dairy scientists, entomologists, biologists, soil scientists, zoologists, plant breeders, horticulturists, economists, engineers, silviculturists, lawyers, poultry scientists, and other technicians. One sector that is increasingly relying on the TN visa program is dairy. Some dairy farmers hire veterinarians through TN visas to help support their American veterinarians on such tasks as preparing animal health reports, examining herds, and overseeing and conducting vaccinations, artificial inseminations, and birthing.

The TN visa is not capped for either country, but many more visas have been issued to Canadians than to Mexican citizens. As with the H-2A visa, the TN program does not provide a path toward U.S. permanent residency. Continuing lower graduation rates on agricultural-related majors at American colleges will likely lead to a sustained growth of TN workers coming to fill the void. This visa has potential to be further expanded, making it a valuable option to address some of the labor shortages in agriculture.

Advantages of the TN Visa

TN visas are less likely to be denied than other visas, and some other advantages of the TN program include:

Visas can be renewed indefinitely.

No labor certification is required.

Employers can expedite the application process by opting for premium processing which, for an additional fee, guarantees resolution by immigration authorities within 15 days.

Visa holders can bring some dependents with them.

Limitations of the TN Visa

Vital Role of Mexico in the American Food Chain

Mexico plays a large role in feeding American households both by sending its workers and shipping food directly to the U.S. As discussed above, Mexican workers on U.S. farms perform manual labor under H-2A visas or as undocumented, or do highly specialized work increasingly with TN visas. Without them, many U.S. farmers would not be able to sustain their operations. Even so, labor cost increases, price volatility, the rise in urbanization, pest pressure, and more frequent extreme weather events have pushed some American producers out of business. Growing food in America is generally more expensive than in Latin America and other developing countries with lower labor costs. For these reasons, agricultural imports from Mexico to the U.S. have increased significantly in the last two decades. In 2008, more than two thirds of all U.S. imports of fresh vegetables came from Mexico (Figure 9). The percentage has continued to grow, reaching 77% in 2020. Its suitable climate for growing fruits and vegetables and lower transportation costs due to its geographic proximity have made Mexico an ideal source of food for the U.S.

Notably, in 2023 Mexico surpassed China as the U.S.' number one overall trading partner for the first time in 20 years, and the economic value of fresh produce imports from Mexico is expected to exceed $53 billion by 2030.

Figure 9 - US Fresh Vegetable Food Imports by Country: 2008-20

Source: Economic Research Service, Department of Agriculture.
Note: Fresh vegetables exclude potatoes and pulses. Numbers inside the bars represent the share of import volume.

Concluding Remarks

Farm labor shortages threaten food security in the U.S., the livelihoods of farmers and farmworkers, and the economies and identity of rural communities. This paper has examined the crucial role played by immigrant farmworkers - primarily Mexican - in putting food on American tables. Migrants are crucial to the U.S.' food security. Without a reliable workforce in agriculture, we can expect to see major domestic and global political consequences, including increased food imports and food price hikes.

Addressing this issue is essential for the sustainability and growth of the agricultural sector in the U.S. Despite the critical need for meaningful immigration reform, the current polarized political climate goes against achieving the consensus needed. Instead, refining and expanding the existing H-2A and TN visa programs, improving conditions to attract and retain workers, and training and retraining farmworkers so that agriculture is viewed as a career and not simply a job are ways in which policy changes can help ensure a brighter future for food production in America.

Taylor, Charlton, and Antonio Yúnez-Naude, "The End of Farm Labor Abundance," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 34, no. 4 (December 2012): 587-98, https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/pps036 ; Tom Hertz and Steven Zahniser, "Is There a Farm Labor Shortage?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics 95, no. 2 (January 2013): 476-81, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23358420.

The term "green industry" includes businesses involved in the production and commercialization of ornamental plants, gardening supplies, and landscaping products.

A job is considered "unskilled" if it does not require formal education beyond a high school diploma.

Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs, Classes of Nonimmigrants Issued Visas (Detailed Breakdown) (Including Crewlist Visas and Border Crossing Cards) Fiscal Years 1992-1996 , https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/NIVClassIssuedDetailed/NIVClassIssued-DetailedFY1992-1996.pdf ; Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs, Table XV(B) Nonimmigrant Visas Issued by Classification (Including Border Crossing Cards) Fiscal Years 2019-2023 , .

Ana Swanson and Simon Romero, "For First Time in Two Decades, U.S. Buys More from Mexico than China," The New York Times , February 7, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/business/economy/united-states-china-mexico-trade.html ; Landyn Young et al., "Economic Impacts of U.S. Imports of Fresh Produce from Mexico by 2030," Center for North American Studies (CNAS), Texas A&M University, CNAS Report 2021-22, February 2023, https://agecoext.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/098.Economic-Impacts-of-U.S.-Imports-of-Fresh-Produce-from-Mexico.pdf .
This research is generously supported by a grant from the Charles Koch Foundation. This publication was produced in collaboration with the Baker Institute Center for the U.S. and Mexico. Wherever feasible, this research was reviewed by outside experts before it was released. Any errors are the authors' alone. This research paper builds on the author's conversation detailed in Tony Payan and Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez's issue brief, " This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Migrant Workers' Vital Role in Agriculture: A Conversation with Alejandro Gutiérrez-Li

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Feeding America: How Immigrants Sustain US Agriculture | Baker Institute

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Farm labor shortages put pressure on the United States' food security, the livelihoods of farmers and farmworkers, and the economies and identity of rural communities. In a new Center for the U.S and Mexico research paper, Alejandro Gutiérrez-Li, assistant professor at North Carolina State University, examines the crucial role played by Mexican immigrant farmworkers in putting food on American tables.

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How Does Immigration Affect the U.S. Economy?

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Presidential candidates Harris and Trump differ sharply on the benefits of immigration for the U.S. economy. What role do immigrants play?

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What the data says about immigrants in the U.S.

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In 2022, roughly 10.6 million immigrants living in the U.S. were born in Mexico, making up 23% of all U.S. immigrants.

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Many of these workers pay taxes and contribute to the economy but are not protected by Us labor laws. They live every day under the threat of arrest and family separation while working in extremely difficult conditions.

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Note: On March 18, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 1603), introduced by Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA), with strong bipartisan support. The bill would modernize the H-2A visa program and establish a pathway to legal status and citizenship for certain undocumented farmworkers. The text of the bill is available here. FWD.us official statement is here.

For decades, immigrant farmworkers have helped feed America. But the agriculture industry faces a chronic labor shortage that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conditions for and rights of farmworkers and their families must be improved. The critical importance of farmworkers, including those who are undocumented, has never been clearer. Modernizing the temporary visa program, and establishing a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented agricultural workers, is urgently needed to protect farmworkers and their families and ensure the future of America's essential agriculture industry.

1| Farmworkers are essential workers - and most are immigrants

Immigrant farmworkers make up an estimated 73% of agriculture workers in the United States. Farm labor is absolutely essential work that puts food on our tables across the country, powers the economy and supports our communities, from dairy farms in Wisconsin to strawberry fields in Florida and apple orchards in Washington. All together, food and agriculture sector is a $1.053 trillion industry. ¹

Every state is involved in food production, but California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota make up more than one-third of total U.S. agricultural-output value. While some sectors like livestock production are scattered across the country, others are concentrated in certain regions, such as lettuce grown in Arizona or poultry farming in southeastern states like Georgia and Alabama.²

Agricultural work requires great skill and is relentless, exhausting, and can be extremely dangerous. All across the country, farmworkers spend extremely long hours harvesting crops in all types of weather while risking injury or illness from heavy equipment or pesticide exposure. In recent years, workers in states like California and Oregon have also faced wildfires and record heat waves, in addition to the threat of COVID-19.

Underscoring the critical importance of farmworkers, the Department of Homeland Security has deemed the food and agriculture sector as "critical infrastructure" during the pandemic. They deserve protections - not just the label "essential."

2| Even before COVID-19 struck, America's farms faced a chronic labor shortage crisis

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that, in total, U.S. agriculture needs 1.5 to 2 million hired workers each year. Farmers have been struggling to fill these positions; in 2019, 56% of California farmers reported being unable to find all the workers they needed over the last five years.

This is partly because, even when wages and benefits are increased, there are still not enough U.S. citizens applying. The current agricultural workforce is also aging, requiring younger workers to replace them. Immigrants have filled these shortfalls in the workforce for decades, but in recent years, fewer immigrants are coming to the U.S. to work in agriculture, a result of current U.S. immigration policy and rising incomes in Mexico.

The labor shortage puts American agriculture at a competitive disadvantage. American growers' inability to find dependable sources of labor is a major reason for the significant increase in the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables that are imported into the U.S, costing billions in sales and tens of thousands of jobs. Without workers, crops wither in the fields, contributing to food waste and millions of dollars in lost production.

In 2020, this chronic labor shortage was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced employers to keep workers at home and restricted access to foreign-born workers that farmers had been planning to employ.

3| Legalizing the undocumented workforce is an economic and moral imperative

Undocumented farm workers make up approximately 50% of the farm labor workforce. Without their hard work, millions of pounds of food would otherwise go unharvested. While these workers pay taxes and contribute to the economy, they are not protected by U.S. labor laws, and they live every day under the threat of arrest and family separation - all while working in extremely difficult conditions.

Despite lacking a legal immigration status, these workers and their families have lived in the United States for a long time. In general, the majority of undocumented immigrants have lived in the U.S. for more than ten years.

Likewise, the average farmworker has worked for their current farm employer for seven years, and more than 80% of hired farmworkers work at a single location within 75 miles of their home.

Relying on large numbers of undocumented individuals to fuel an industry is bad policy for workers and employers alike. But forcing them to leave would be even more devastating to our food supply, and fundamentally unfair, given what they've contributed. For example, the dairy industry estimates that retail milk prices would nearly double if farmers lost their foreign-born workers. Overall, agricultural output would fall by $30 to $60 billion.

Above all, the United States has a moral imperative to find a solution for undocumented families who have called this country home for so long, who have contributed greatly with little recognition, and who have more than earned their place in the American story.

In 2019, about 258,000 immigrant workers were granted temporary H-2A visas...but less than 4% of the total number of workers that are needed for food production.

U.S. Department of Labor

4| The temporary H-2A visa program is important, but it is not enough

The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program is the primary way in which immigrant workers can legally perform short-term farm labor in the U.S. U.S. farmers can sponsor workers for a temporary employment visa if sufficient numbers of domestic workers are not available.

In 2019, about 258,000 immigrant workers were granted temporary H-2A visas, up from 48,000 positions certified in 2005, but less than 4% of the total number of workers that are needed for food production. Florida, Georgia, Washington, California and North Carolina were the top five states where the most H-2A workers were employed.

While the current H-2A program helps address labor shortages, more needs to be done to ensure farmworkers have access to basic rights, and protections from persistently low wages, overcrowded or unsafe housing conditions, and lack of access to health insurance.³

Additionally, farmers say utilizing the H-2A system is an expensive, slow process. On average, workers arrive to pick crops 22 days late. Farmers in year-round sectors like dairy or pork production cannot even participate because visas are only available for seasonal workers.

5| Americans would benefit enormously from a stable agricultural workforce.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that providing legal status to current undocumented workers would have a net positive effect on the federal budget, increasing tax revenues. The CBO has also found that legalizing the undocumented population would boost economic output and increase employment for U.S.-born workers.

Additionally, stabilizing the workforce would help U.S. farmers stay open for business, keepings jobs available for U.S. workers and pushing back on increasing food and production costs driven by the shortages.

Congress should allow undocumented farmworkers who have been present in the U.S. to adjust to a legal status. This would allow farmers to maintain their current workforce legally, while also allowing undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, earn a fair wage, be better protected from exploitation and abuse, and fully participate in the communities they have called home for years.⁴

Notes

1. As the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service explains, "Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $1.053 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, a 5.4-percent share. The output of America's farms contributed $132.8 billion of this sum-about 1 percent of GDP. The overall contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP is larger than this because sectors related to agriculture-forestry, fishing, and related activities; food, beverages, and tobacco products; textiles, apparel, and leather products; food and beverage stores; and food service, eating and drinking places-rely on agricultural inputs in order to contribute added value to the economy."

2. While some sectors of agriculture have turned to increased mechanization to try to address labor shortages, others cannot; for example, berries and other fresh produce be picked by hand to ensure their quality, and many dairy farmers can't absorb the cost of switching to robotic milking machines. And because many workers eventually move on to other sectors, farmers are virtually always in need of new hires.

3. The legal status of H-2A workers is also temporary and subject to an employer's sponsorship. While the visa can be re-approved annually for up to three years, then the worker must leave the U.S. for at least three months before applying to receive a H-2A visa again. No matter how many years a worker returns, there is no path to citizenship or permanent legal status for the worker or his or their family - despite the reality that many immigrant workers have been working on the same farm for years, sometimes year-round.

4. With this reality in mind, farmers and farmworker advocates joined together to push for legislation to establish a legal, long-term workforce. In December 2019, the full House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 5038). The bill would modernize the H-2A program, require agriculture employers to authorize workers through an updated "E-Verify" process, and create a pathway to citizenship for current unauthorized agriculture workers. While H.R. 5038 marks the first time the House has approved agriculture-related immigration legislation since 1986, this model legislation has not received a vote in the Senate.

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Immigrant Farmworkers and America's Food Production - 5 Things to Know

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Modernizing the temporary visa program, and establishing a pathway to citizenship for long-term undocumented agricultural workers, is urgently needed to protect America's agriculture industry and farmworkers alike.

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Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants Would Boost U.S. Economic Growth

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Introduction and summary Today, 10.2 million undocumented immigrants are living and working in communities across the United States. On average, they have lived in this country for 16 years and are parents, grandparents, and siblings to another 10.2 million family members. At the same time, it has been nearly 40 years since Congress has meaningfully reformed the U.S.

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Immigration has emerged as a top issue in the presidential campaign. The timing is odd since immigration into the United States has slowed sharply.

Issuance of green cards, or permanent resident visas, to new arrivals has been largely flat since 2008, but dipped in 2013 to a six-year low. Illegal immigration is near record lows, with migrant apprehensions along the Southwest border at levels last seen in the 1970s. Temporary work-based visas have risen slightly in recent years but remain below their 2007 peak. Plotting visas and migrant apprehensions as a share of the nation's working-age population, reinforces the point that immigration is slowing in both absolute and relative terms.

More on Immigration from the Bush Institute

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A lack of legislative action on immigration reform, rising border and interior enforcement of immigration laws, and the slow-growing U.S. economy have combined to stem the inflow of immigrant workers. The Mexican case is particularly striking, with demographers suggesting net inflows from Mexico were negative over the five-year period following the Great Recession. Economic stability in Mexico, and slower population growth, has dulled the "push factors" that generated mass emigration for four decades.

Against this backdrop of slowing immigration, it's surprising that presidential politics are heating up around this issue.

Why we need immigration

Immigration fuels the economy. When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives. It's a phenomenon dubbed the "immigration surplus," and while a small share of additional GDP accrues to natives - typically 0.2 to 0.4 percent - it still amounts to $36 to $72 billion per year.

In addition to the immigration surplus, immigrants grease the wheels of the labor market by flowing into industries and areas where there is a relative need for workers - where bottlenecks or shortages might otherwise damp growth.

When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives. It's a phenomenon dubbed the "immigration surplus."

Immigrants are more likely to move than natives, and by relieving these bottlenecks to expansion, immigrants increase the speed limit of the economy. Growth accelerates as slack falls, a desirable scenario that follows from the improved allocation of resources in the economy.

There are many examples - nationally and regionally - of immigrants moving to where the jobs are. During and after World War II, Mexican immigrants were instrumental in alleviating shortages arising from the war effort. During the oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was record migration to Texas. In the 1990s, it was the fast-growing South and Mountain West states that received immigrants, many for the first time.

In terms of occupations, immigrants flowed into high-tech jobs during the Internet boom and construction jobs during the 2000s housing boom.

Immigrants grease the wheels of the labor market by flowing into industries and areas where there is a relative need for workers - where bottlenecks or shortages might otherwise damp growth.

In addition, the rise in high-skilled immigration, a pronounced trend since the 1990s, has been linked to innovation, specifically to higher patenting rates among immigrants. Interestingly, greater innovation among immigrants appears to boost it among natives, too. Immigrants innovate more than natives because they are concentrated in STEM occupations where there is lots of R&D and entrepreneurial activity

Forty-four percent of medical scientists are foreign born, for example, as are 42 percent of computer software developers. Immigrant workers are also overrepresented among college professors, engineers, mathematicians, nurses, doctors and dentists, to name a few.

If immigration makes the economy larger, more efficient and productive, what's the problem? Why do we, as a nation, strictly limit immigration?

Yes, there are downsides

Immigration changes factor prices - it lowers the wages of competing workers, while raising the return to capital and the wages of complementary workers. In other words, the immigration surplus does not accrue equally to everyone. It goes primarily to the owners of capital, which includes business and land-owners and investors.

Complementary workers also benefit. The demand for these workers rises with more immigration. They may be construction supervisors, translators, pharmaceutical reps, or immigration lawyers. And consumers benefit from the lower prices of the goods and services that immigrants produce. But competing workers' wages fall, at least in the initial transition period as the economy adjusts to the new labor inflow.

Research suggests that previous immigrants suffer more of the adverse wage effects than do natives. Prior immigrants are more like current immigrants.

Research also suggests any negative wage effects are concentrated among low-skilled and not high-skilled workers. Perhaps that is because high-skilled U.S.-born workers are complementary to immigrants to a greater extent than native low-skilled workers, who hold jobs that require less education and fewer language skills.

Overall, we are talking about a plus

Immigration is thus a positive but also disruptive change. There are lots of historical examples of positive yet disruptive economic change. The Industrial Revolution displaced millions of farm workers and resulted in the great urban migrations and the birth of mega-cities to which we now ascribe all kinds of positive attributes, including creativity and innovation and higher wages.

No great change is without some short-term cost. What is costly in the long-term is preventing market forces from funneling resources to their best use. The adjustment of wages and prices to the changing demand and supply in the economy are the levers of capitalism that direct resources to their best allocation.

Immigration has net benefits. The fact that it has some costs is not a reason to bar it, but rather to manage it. Mechanisms can be found to benefit from immigration's gains while making up for the losses of some workers. International trade has similar effects, and workers adversely affected by trade are eligible for federal programs such as Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Immigration has net benefits. The fact that it has some costs is not a reason to bar it, but rather to manage it.

International migration is not much different than domestic migration, at least not in terms of economics. We Texans often celebrate Californians and others who move to Texas for the abundant jobs, lower house prices and lesser tax burden. In Texas, we have depended on this inflow of labor from other states to grow as fast as we have - about twice as fast as the nation since 1990. The state has benefited from the migration as have those who moved here.

Would wages have been higher without the inflow of labor? Perhaps temporarily. But wage inflation and skill shortages would have choked off investment and firms would have expanded elsewhere, in places where they could readily find more competitively priced resources.

Immigration is a net positive, even for those who don't move, but the gains are not distributed equally. The next step for policymakers is to structure immigration reform to take advantage of immigration's many benefits while mitigating the costs.

Immigration is a net positive, even for those who don't move, but the gains are not distributed equally. The next step for policymakers is to structure immigration reform to take advantage of immigration's many benefits while mitigating the costs.

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Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs

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As the debate surrounding immigration heats up, the contributions immigrants make remain an economic boost we cannot overlook.

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Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

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Immigration touches on many facets of life in the United States. Get the facts with this useful resource, which compiles in one place answers to some of the most often-asked questions about immigration and immigrants in the United States now and historically. This article contains essential data on the immigrant population, immigration levels, trends in immigration enforcement, and much more.

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Agriculture is one of the sectors with the highest proportion of undocumented workers. On average, immigrants have comprised around 40% of the labor force over the last three decades.

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Undocumented farm workers make up about 73% of agricultural workers in the US. Without their hard work, millions of pounds of food would go unharvested, contributing to food waste and millions of dollars in lost production.

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Providing citizenship for all undocumented immigrants in the US would boost US GDP by a total of $1.7 trillion over 10 years and create 438,800 new jobs.

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Immigrants help industries and areas where there is a need for workers, where shortages might otherwise damp growth.

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Immigrants generated about $1.6 trillion in economic activity in 2022. They also contributed more than $579 billion in local, state, and federal taxes.

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A growing number of unauthorized immigrants have permission to live and work in the US and are temporarily protected from deportation.

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In 2023, ice conducted 143,000 removals to more than 180 countries, almost double the number of removals (72,000) the year before. That year ice expelled nearly 63,000 noncitizens under Title 42 before the policy ended in mid-May 2023.