Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a group of 17 states in a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s Department of Labor over federal rules that give foreign farm workers collective bargaining rights but exclude American farm workers.
In September 2023, the Department of Labor announced federal rules that would make significant changes to the H-2A visa program, which allows American farms to import foreign workers to fill U.S. agricultural jobs.
As part of the rules, Confirm In April 2024, foreign H-2A visa workers will have collective bargaining rights that are not available to American farmworkers.
On Monday, Kobach and attorneys general from 16 states filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor over the rule, arguing that the administration does not have the authority to rewrite parts of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)
“Once again, Joe Biden is putting America on the back burner,” Kobach said in a statement. “While American workers suffer under Biden’s terrible economy, he gives political advantage to foreign workers. I stand with the American worker.”
Litigation state:
The final rule does not comply with federal law. Congress has already spoken clearly about whether farm workers have the right to collective bargaining and concluded that they do not. Only Congress can rewrite the NLRA. Defendants cannot do so through the rulemaking process. [Emphasis added]
…
The final rule effectively gives H-2A workers NLRA rights – rights that American farmworkers specifically do not have under federal law. But the final rule argues that providing H-2A workers with these rights that similarly situated Americans lack will go some way to preventing the adverse effects on American wages. [Emphasis added]
The lawsuit asks a federal court to block the Department of Labor from enforcing the rule, arguing it violates federal law.
Other states joining the lawsuit are Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
As Breitbart News has reported for years, the program is often used to replace Americans and maintain the low cost of farm labor.
In 1997, more than 16,000 foreign H-2A visa workers were imported to fill American agricultural jobs. The latest data for fiscal year 2022 shows that U.S. farms are nearly 300,000 Hire foreign H-2A visa workers to fill American jobs.
This lawsuit Kansas v. U.S. Department of Labor In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
