What is the H-2A Farmworker Program?

The Federal H-2A Temporary Farmworker Program was designed to provide “temporary workers/guest workers” in areas where industrial agriculture can request a cheap, flexible and deportable workforce with no labor rights.

This program relies on cheap and exploitable temporary workers working on farms at the expense of local farmworker communities displaced from secure jobs to support their families. Local workers work/live in Skagit County (some for decades), have families, pay taxes, pay for housing, buy clothing and groceries, and support the local economy.

Corporate farming organizations across the country use these “guest workers” to compete against their community workers for workers and jobs. There is no local shortage of community workers!

Current local programs include a national farming corporation which has purchased and retrofitted a large building in downtown Mount Vernon to house “temporary workers” that is due to open Aug. 9.

A local union, Familias Unidas Por La Justicia (on Facebook), has been organized to support the local workers and communities in Skagit County.

Federal law requires growers demonstrate a lack of available workers in an area to be given authority to bring in “guest workers.” The Washington State Employment Security Department oversees these requests. The increase of H-2A workers in Washington grew by 8% in 2023, numbering 35,680 “guest workers” who are frequently unfamiliar with local crop (including berries) harvesting. Data are from the American Farm Bureau and DOL.

We encourage you to learn more about this expanding program and the negative economic and social impacts on Skagit County. Send email to [email protected].

John Schmidt

Shelter Bay