Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), along with 23 attorneys general, is demanding that President Joe Biden drop a proposed federal rule that he says will give collective bargaining rights to foreign farm workers while American farm workers are excluded.
In September, Biden’s Department of Labor issued a proposed federal rule that would dramatically change the H-2A visa program that allows United States farms to import foreign workers to take agricultural jobs.
As part of the proposed rule, Kobach and the GOP attorneys general said foreign H-2A visa workers would get collective bargaining rights that are not afforded to American farm workers.
In a letter to Biden’s Department of Labor, Kobach and the attorneys general write, “The proposed rule violates the major questions doctrine because Congress did not clearly authorize the Department to grant foreign migrant farmworkers the right to unionize through the rulemaking process.”
“This rule is not just a violation of the law. It is bad policy,” they write:
It would create a situation where temporary foreign migrant workers receive collective bargaining protections that American farmworkers are statutorily denied. This is not only absurd but wrong. The combined effects of high inflation and interest rates have left countless Americans (including farmworkers) behind. Prioritizing the interests of foreign agricultural workers over those of Americans simply adds insult to injury. The Department must change course to avoid this situation. [Emphasis added]
For the foregoing reasons, the Department should withdraw the proposed rule insofar as it includes collective bargaining protections for H-2A agricultural workers. It should also withdraw the proposed rule insofar as it provides a right of access to unions on employer property. [Emphasis added]
Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach speaks in Leavenworth, Kan., on July 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
“Once again, the Biden administration has placed the interests of foreign nationals over the interests of United States citizens,” Kobach said in a statement.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia all signed the letter.
As Breitbart News has chronicled for years, the program is often used to replace Americans and preserve the low cost of agricultural labor.
In 1997, a little more than 16,000 foreign H-2A visa workers were imported to take American agriculture jobs. The latest data shows that in the first half of fiscal year 2023, U.S. farms imported nearly 200,000 foreign H-2A visa workers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
