Feeding America: How Immigrants Sustain US Agriculture

Executive Summary

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

In 1943, Abraham H. Maslow revolutionized our understanding of human needs by organizing them into a pyramid, with the most essential at the base and higher-order needs at the top.[1] At the foundation of this hierarchy lie the most fundamental human necessities: food and water. This underscores the significance of agriculture, a cornerstone of societies throughout the history of civilization. For thousands of years, agriculture was a primary human activity — however, the advent of the Industrial Revolution transformed this landscape, turning it into a more specialized activity. Gradually, the workforce shifted away from farming, becoming less agricultural and more urban in character. Today, most Americans live in cities and are largely disconnected from the labor-intensive processes that bring food to their tables. Urban dwellers would be hard-pressed to answer questions such as:

• 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.[2] The situation today is different: Farmers across the country are finding it difficult to recruit and retain workers.[3] 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.[4] 

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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

Undocumented Versus Legal Farmworkers

Around 11 million individuals in the U.S. were estimated to be undocumented in 2021, representing approximately 22% of all the foreign-born population in the country.[10] Agriculture is recognized as one of the sectors with the highest proportion of undocumented workers. Since the 1990s, the composition of the farm labor force harvesting crops has fluctuated among U.S. born workers, foreign-born naturalized workers, legal foreign farmworkers, and undocumented individuals. On average, the latter group has comprised around 40% of the labor force over the last three decades (Figure 1). 

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Figure 1 — Legal Status of Crop Farmworkers: 1991–2020

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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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).[17] 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

Each year the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publishes a list specifying H-2A eligible countries.[18] Although the list includes many nations, a significant majority of H-2A workers — close to 90% — come from Mexico. For example, in fiscal year 2022 more than 275,000 of the approximately 300,000 visas issued went to Mexican citizens (Figure 4). This is consistent with the pattern over the last century and due, at least in part, to the long historical ties between American farmers and Mexican worker-sending communities: Most farmworkers in the U.S. have come from its southern neighbor, initially under the Bracero program, then without documentation, and in the last three decades legally with H-2A visas. Mexican workers constitute the bulk of the manual labor force, focused mostly on harvesting. 

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.[19]

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 

Highly Skilled Foreign Workers in Agriculture: TN Visa

Previously, agricultural labor shortages were primarily associated with manual workers for tasks, such as planting, weeding, sorting, packing, applying pesticides, and harvesting. Now the need for dependable labor has extended to the full range of skills. In addition to manual labor, agricultural operations also require highly specialized, college-educated, workers who are familiar with the new farm productivity technologies: The use of drones, artificial intelligence, robots, and precision agriculture continues to expand on U.S. farms. Recently, agricultural employers have started experiencing difficulties recruiting these professional workers, because of tight labor markets, a decline in college enrollment, and new opportunities for university graduates in sectors such as data science and engineering.[20] Highly educated workers are attracted to more lucrative jobs that better align with current labor market trends, such as working remotely or living in major metropolitan areas, features that are less available in agriculture.

One of the main ways that U.S. agricultural employers can hire highly skilled workers from other countries is through the TN visa program. Not as well-known as the H-2A program, the TN visa was created in 1994 by a chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.[21] The program was grandfathered into the USMCA (the successor to NAFTA) in 2020. A TN visa allows citizens of Mexico and Canada to work temporarily in the U.S. The program is restricted to highly skilled professionals with at least a bachelor’s degree in their field whose area of expertise falls within the program’s allowed occupations.

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.[22]

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.[23]

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

Some limitations of the TN visa program are that it 1) does not cover all occupations that farmers may want to hire, and 2) is limited to Canada and Mexico, so it does not apply to specialized talent from other countries.[24] One marked difference in the program rules is that Canadian citizens only need to show a job offer at a port of entry to obtain a TN visa, whereas Mexican citizens must apply for the visa before arrival at a U.S. consulate.

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.[25]

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

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.

Notes

[1] Abraham H. Maslow, A Dynamic Theory of Human Motivation (1958), https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm.

[2] Diane Charlton and J. Edward Taylor, “A Declining Farm Workforce: Analysis of Panel Data from Rural Mexico,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 98, no. 4 (July 2016): 1158–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaw018.

[3] 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.

[4] “Farm Labor,” Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), last updated August 7, 2023, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/.

[5] Timothy J. Richards, “Immigration Reform and Farm Labor Markets,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 100, no. 4 (July 2018): 1050–71, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aay027.

[6] The term “green industry” includes businesses involved in the production and commercialization of ornamental plants, gardening supplies, and landscaping products.

[7] For the terms “shuttle” and “follow-the-crop,” see Amanda Gold et al., Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 2019–2020: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers, JBS International, research report no. 16, January 2022, https://bit.ly/3LqCPMq; and Maoyang Fan et al., “Why Do Fewer Agricultural Workers Migrate Now?” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 97, no. 3 (April 2015): 665–79, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aau115.

[8] Genti Kostandini, Elton Mykerezi, and Cesar Escalante, “The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on the US Farming Sector,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96, no. 1 (January 2014): 172–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aat081; Charlton and Taylor, “A Declining Farm Workforce: Analysis of Panel Data from Rural Mexico,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 94, no. 4 (July 2016): 1158–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaw018.

[9] Gordon H. Hanson, “Illegal Migration from Mexico to the United States,” Journal of Economic Literature 44, no. 4 (December 2006): 869–924, https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.44.4.869; John Kennan and James R. Walker, “The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions,” Econometrica 79, no. 1 (January 2011): 211–51, https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA4657; and Rebecca Lessem, “Mexico—U.S. Immigration: Effects of Wages and Border Enforcement,” The Review of Economic Studies 85, no. 4 (October 2018): 2353–88, https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdx078.

[10] Jeremey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “What We Know about Unauthorized Immigrants Living in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, November 16, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/16/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/.

[11] Anita Alves Pena, “Legalization and Immigrants in U.S. Agriculture,” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 10, no. 1 (February 2010): 1–22, https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2250; Sherrie A. Kossoudji and Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, “Coming Out of the Shadows: Learning about Legal Status and Wages from the Legalized Population,” Journal of Labor Economics 20, no. 3 (July 2002): 598–628, https://doi.org/10.1086/339611; and Lessem and Kayuna Nakajima, “Immigrant Wages and Recessions: Evidence from Undocumented Mexicans,” European Economic Review 114 (May 2019): 92–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.02.004.

[12] Taylor, “The Earnings and Mobility of Legal and Illegal Immigrant Workers in Agriculture,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 74, no. 4 (1992): 889–96, https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.225857; Robert H. Topel and Michael P. Ward, “Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, no. 2 (May 1992): 439–79, https://doi.org/10.2307/2118478.

[13] Robert W. Fairlie and Christopher Woodruff, “Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States,” in Mexican Immigration to the United States edited by George J. Borjas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 123–58, https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226066684-006.

[14] Alejandro Gutiérrez-Li, “The H-2A Visa Program: Addressing Farm Labor Scarcity in North Carolina,” NC State Economist, July 2021, https://cals.ncsu.edu/are-extension/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2021/07/NC-State-Economist-Summer-2021.pdf.

[15] A job is considered “unskilled” if it does not require formal education beyond a high school diploma.

[16] Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs, Classes of Nonimmigrants Issued Visas (Detailed Breakdown) (Including Crewlist Visas and Border Crossing Cards) Fiscal Years 1987–1991, https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/NIVClassIssuedDetailed/NIVClassIssued-DetailedFY1987-1991.pdf.

[17] 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, https://bit.ly/3SewTtL.

[18] Department of Homeland Security, “Identification of Foreign Countries Whose Nationals Are Eligible to Participate in the H-2A and H-2B Nonimmigrant Worker Programs,” Federal Register notice, November 9, 2023, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/09/2023-24210/identification-of-foreign-countries-whose-nationals-are-eligible-to-participate-in-the-h-2a-and-h-2b.

[19] Surendra Osti, Maria Bampasidou, and Matthew J. Fannin, “Labor-Intensive Multiple Cropping Systems and the H-2A Program,” Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues 34, no. 1 (April 2019): 1–6, https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.287147.

[20] Gutiérrez-Li, “What is the TN Visa Program?” Southern Ag Today, February 14, 2024, https://southernagtoday.org/2024/02/14/what-is-the-tn-visa-program/.

[21] Tony Payan and Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez, “Revamping the TN Visa to Get Workers Where the US Needs Them” (Houston: Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, June 7, 2023), https://doi.org/10.25613/fnz6-n630.

[22] Gutiérrez-Li, “What is the TN visa program?” Southern Ag Today, February 14, 2024, https://southernagtoday.org/2024/02/14/what-is-the-tn-visa-program/.

[23] Payan, “America Is Facing Severe Labor Shortages. Expanding the TN Visa Can Help” (Houston: Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, March 4, 2024), https://doi.org/10.25613/ZS5A-EW63.

[24] Gutiérrez-Li, “What is the TN visa program?” Southern Ag Today, February 14, 2024, https://southernagtoday.org/2024/02/14/what-is-the-tn-visa-program/.

[25] 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, “Migrant Workers’ Vital Role in Agriculture: A Conversation with Alejandro Gutiérrez-Li.”

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.