DC

Trump’s new H-2A wage rule will radically cut the wages of all farmworkers: New estimates show farmworkers stand to lose $4.4 to $5.4 billion annually under DOL’s updated Adverse Effect Wage Rate The Trump administration will cut the pay of all farmworkers by reducing the minimum wages paid to workers filling seasonal agricultural jobs in the H-2A visa program. By lowering wage rates implement...

Trump’s new H-2A wage rule will radically cut the wages of all farmworkers - and that appears to be the administration's explicit intention: New estimates from @benzipperer.org & me at @epi.org show farmworkers stand to lose $4.4 to $5.4 billion annually under DOL’s updated Adverse Effect Wage Rate

Workers harvesting sweet potatoes

Workers in Merced County, CA are harvesting sweet potatoes. There's so much work at this time of year that there are multiple shifts. These workers start at 4 a.m. when it's still dark. Lamps hung on the tractor give them enough light to sort the potatoes by size into boxes. #WeFeedYou

Bernie Sanders, speaking Saturday night:

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/eugene-deb...

Will Foreign MBAs Win or Lose With Trump’s H-1B Reforms? Maybe Both Two largely overlooked sentences in a government proclamation, calling for raising the H-1B program’s wages, could prove to have a big effect.

Data analysis from @bloomberg.com assesses the impact of current and future H-1B visa reforms on foreign workers with MBAs - finding that 70% of MBAs are hired at the two lowest wage levels, and that "prioritizing higher-paid jobs could assure H-1B status for many MBA grads":

Quick summary of my comments: The H-1B program needs better rules - including an updated prevailing wage rule, better allocation system, and a requirement that employers recruit US workers - plus real enforcement from the Labor Department, which will require additional staffing and funding for DOL:

Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.

As @ddayen.bsky.social and now the @washingtonpost.com have reported - the Trump administration has admitted their immigration enforcement efforts will lead to a spike in food prices. Their solution? Cut wages for farmworkers, already some of the lowest paid workers in the country

She managed to get a farmworker visa. Once in the U.S., she endured abuse. A Prism investigation reveals that women are routinely shut out of the H-2A program. Those who get in report doing non-agricultural labor and facing sexual violence and trafficking

I want to do a little breakdown of this investigation I published today for @prismreports.org about gender-based violence in the H-2A agricultural visa program.

Thank you CA Department of Public Health for recommending that people wear an N95 mask during a significant Covid surge:

Opinion | Trump cited my research to criticize H-1B visas. But his solution is all wrong. The program is deeply flawed. But a new $100,000 fee on employers won’t fix it — and could have unintended consequences.

"The H-1B visa program is deeply flawed. But Trump's new $100,000 fee on employers won’t fix it," says EPI's @dcosta.bsky.social.

There are much better ways to fix the H-1B program and protect workers. Learn more in Costa's @msnbc.com op-ed:

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump creates $100K entry fee for H-1B visas, directs DOL and DHS to update H-1B wage and lottery rules On September 19, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring a new $100,000 fee requirement on H-1B visas. The H-1B visa program provides temporary, non-immigrant U.S. work visa...

Trump's new H-1B fee of $100K is a haphazard and not-well-targeted way to reform a visa program that is deeply flawed. To fix it, new rules are needed with labor enforcement to ensure fair conditions & pay for migrant & US workers.
Here's @epi.org's Policy Watch explainer on the fee and its impact:

The amount collected from the new $100K H-1B fee will be $6.5 billion, not $14bn.

The fee will be applicable to H-1B petitions for new employment after Sept 21 and for less than half of new H-1Bs, ie those who were not already in the US. In 2024, 46% of the 141,000 new H-1Bs were outside of the US.

Raids & indiscriminate immigration enforcement are disrupting farm labor & America’s food system

This Thursday, EPI's @dcosta.bsky.social will speak at an @investigatemidwest.bsky.social panel on raids, reform, & the future of farm labor

9/18 @1pm ET. Register: www.eventbrite.com/e/immigratio...

Welcome to the new era of Covid vaccine tourism Trump and RFK Jr.'s anti-vax crackdown is driving Americans across state lines—and making some pay out of pocket.

As I wrote about for @motherjones.com, people are already crossing state lines to get the Covid vaccine—which may become more common if the CDC vaccine advisory committee recommends limiting them this week. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Raids & indiscriminate immigration enforcement are disrupting farm labor & America’s food system.

Next week, EPI's @dcosta.bsky.social will speak at a @investigatemidwest.bsky.social panel on raids, reform, & the future of farm labor.

Thurs, 9/18. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/immigratio...

A not-so-happy Labor Day for farmworkers, thanks to the Trump administration's latest move to end the USDA survey of farm employers. The only reason to do this is to lower wages for both migrant farmworkers and U.S. farmworkers - who are already some of the-lowest paid workers in the country:

FYI, fwiw:
x.com/seckennedy/s...

It's also been approved for shorter durations, it needs to be available year round. And of course agree with your second point!

Rite-Aid, CVS, and Costco stocked it last year and the year before - it's the only one I've taken since 2023. It's true people don't know about it - at each place I got it they said that hardly anyone asks for it and they have to send many back. If it's the only one available, maybe that changes?

Same - it's got full approval at least for people 65 and older and those 12 through 64 who have an underlying condition, and it's not mRNA so hypothetically RFK et al might be less skeptical of it? Would be interesting if mRNAs get banned and Novavax becomes the main/only option

Why Lelo Juarez Chose Self-Deportation How the current conditions of immigrant detention and Trump Administration policies impelled a farmworker organizer to return to Mexico.

David Bacon's interview with Lelo Juarez, a farmworker who was imprisoned by ICE - and likely targeted because of his union organizing and advocacy and criticism of the H-2A visa program:

Completely unqualified hack.

The Trump administration is an affirmative action speak for mediocre white guys. It's kind of a reverse-DEI.

‘Critical weaknesses’ in Cal/OSHA inspections of accidents Cal/OSHA is so understaffed it doesn’t visit all accident sites, even when workers are injured. A state audit says that can ‘undermine’ safety laws.

California has some of the better state labor standards enforcement agencies in the US, but even there, agencies are understaffed: A recent audit found Cal/OSHA had an overall staff vacancy rate of 32%, or 289 unfilled positions, last year: calmatters.org/politics/202...

The Pandemic Has Been a Portal (for a few of us) It's true that most people keep choosing "normalcy". But the COVID conscious community is showing us a radical new way forward, that centers care

In 2020, Arundhati Roy wrote a gorgeous, prescient essay called “The Pandemic is a Portal”. In this piece, I discuss who actually walked through it: the COVID conscious community, and why I’m proud to be a part of it.

www.thegauntlet.news/p/the-pandem...

The DeSantis administration has not made public a list of names of the immigrants held at the facility in heavy duty tents at an airstrip in the Florida Everglades. Individuals sent to the makeshift detention center do not show up in an online government database that allows the public to search for immigrant detainees' whereabouts. Lawyers say they have had difficulty locating clients sent to the site, often learning that they are there when detainees call family members.

An enforced disappearance is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law (Article 2 of the ICPED and Preamble of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance) It is characterized by three cumulative elements (defined in A/HRC/16/48/Add.3): 1. Deprivation of liberty against the will of the person; 2. Involvement of government officials, at least by acquiescence; 3. Refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person.

Florida is committing "enforced disappearance," a very serious violation of international human rights law.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

www.ohchr.org/en/special-p...

The public can't yet wrap their brain around the level of intrusion in their lives and the suffering that will be caused for millions as a result of ICE becoming the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the government:

.@benzipperer.org's new report has estimates on the job losses that will be caused by Trump's deportations - including state by state estimates and for the construction and child care industries:

Why American farmers rely on unauthorized workers More than 40% of hired farm laborers in the U.S. are immigrants without legal status. President Trump campaigned on a plan for mass deportation. But even he admits -- the country can't survive without...

EPI's @dcosta.bsky.social was featured on @wbur.org's‬ "On Point" talking about America's reliance on migrant farm workers. Listen here:

www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025...

My colleague @benzipperer.org estimates if Trump meets deportation targets of 1 million per year, it'll lead to massive job losses: 6 million total, 44% of them jobs belonging to US-born workers. If Trump gets $160 billion in new enforcement money, he might pull it off.
www.epi.org/blog/the-rep...

Immigration enforcement doesn't help workers or improve labor standards. Even when employers get fined, it's a slap on the wrist, they can negotiate the amount downward, and it's still likely cheaper than the amount of wages they stole from workers. Need more status-blind DOL enforcement, not DHS.

Republican reconciliation bill will nearly triple funding for ICE, increase the detention budget from $3.4 billion to *$45* billion - giving Trump a total of $185 billion to turn the US into a police state. And there's ZERO new funds for protecting workers: