The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers when there are not enough available U.S. workers to fill seasonal farm jobs.
Widely used across Louisiana agriculture, the program helps support industries such as sugarcane, crawfish, forestry, nurseries, and vegetable production during peak planting and harvest seasons.
Read MoreA group of Louisiana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation and advocate for issues affecting agriculture in the state.
Read MoreLast fall, Don Benoit had been making plans to hire 80 seasonal migrant laborers to work at his crawfish processing plant during the upcoming spring season, and he was applying for guest-worker visas just like he had for the last eight years. But the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history would soon throw his plans — and his business — into disarray.
Read MoreWith deportation raids sending a chill across farm country, the Trump administration wants to make it easier for U.S. farms to hire migrant workers, angering critics across the political spectrum.
On January 1, new emergency rules took effect, allowing U.S. farms to hire more workers and pay less in wages for migrants coming in on H-2A temporary labor visas.
Read MoreCrawfish processors across Louisiana say a shortage of temporary work visas has left them without the migrant labor they depend on, forcing plants to sit idle during the busiest part of the season, and threatening a key part of Louisiana’s $640 million crawfish industry.
Read MoreThe trade and immigration policies of the Trump administration have rippled through the nation’s economy in myriad ways, and Louisiana has not been immune to their effects. In recent months, we’ve catalogued the ways tariffs have affected our ports, our retailers and even our coffee shops.
Read MoreThe commissioner of agriculture and forestry is sounding the alarm over the lack of crawfish peelers in the state. Mike Strain says this is because the Department of Homeland Security has stopped processing H-2B applications for skilled guest workers, preventing them from coming back.
Read MoreThe crawfish industry is facing a labor shortage due to federal immigration caps as the state enters the start of the harvesting season, Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain said in a House committee meeting on Tuesday.
Read MoreThe next time you pour out a sack of boiled crawfish, bite into a sweet slice of king cake or buy a carton of fresh Louisiana strawberries, think about the work that happens long before those Louisiana staples reach your table.
Read MoreFrom crawfish to vegetables, Louisiana farmers say much of our food and produce relies on migrant labor.
That has some in the agriculture industry calling for pathways so migrant workers can gain permanent legal status in the United States, not just temporary work visas. We visited three Louisiana farms to find out why.
Read MoreThe federal government has temporarily increased the number of H-2B non-immigrant visas that will be awarded in 2026, a provision that Rep. Julia Letlow says will benefit Louisiana crawfish farmers.
Read MoreSeafood spots in New Orleans are beginning to boil mud bugs, but some say they are facing a unique challenge.
Farmers are reporting that their immigrant employees are opting out of work due to the ongoing federal immigration crackdown across Louisiana. As a result, farmers say production is slower due to reduced staff.
Read MoreIt’s no secret American agriculture heavily relies on immigrant labor to produce much of the food we eat.
Read MoreIn a tacit admission that U.S. food production requires foreign labor, the Trump administration is making it easier for farmers to employ guest workers from other countries.
Read MoreIn the late summer heat, the hours move like molasses.
Still, across the cane fields of South Louisiana, migrant workers from Mexico brave the sun and punishing humidity to plant sugarcane. They come from the mountains of Guanajuato and San Luís Potosí, or the tropical coast of Veracruz, working the fields, often up to 70 hours a week.
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