Immigration and the 2024 Elections

There’s no denying that immigration was a significant issue in the 2024 elections. Former presidential candidate Donald Trump brought it up whenever he could, and numerous polls indicated that many Americans were eager for a shift from the troubling immigration policies seen during the Biden administration, which allowed a large influx of illegal immigrants into the country.

So, you might think that Republicans in Congress would act on the clear message from the voters. But that’s not quite the case.

Recently, 48 Republican members of Congress, along with a handful of Democrats, introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026, also known as H.R. 9535.

What’s the “workforce” at stake here, you wonder?

It’s essentially about the many hundreds of thousands of illegal farmworkers currently in the U.S.

Now, before drawing any conclusions, let’s clarify. This bill, while it does offer mass amnesty to undocumented workers, doesn’t simply give handouts to them. Instead, it significantly benefits the profits of large agricultural corporations, all while these politicians rake in generous donations from their corporate supporters.

It’s hard to describe the ethics surrounding this legislation other than to call it “corrupt.” Essentially, the bill allows illegal foreign workers with at least six months of farm labor experience over the past two years to gain special status by bypassing legal barriers, effectively fast-tracking their path to H-2A visa status.

In simple terms, it means they’d be recognized as legally present in the U.S.—hence the mass amnesty.

But that’s not the end of it.

This legislation also imposes a wage cap—an Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) of just 3.25 percent. This cap limits wage growth for all farmworkers, whether they are citizens or noncitizens, to 3.25 percent annually. Yet labor market data shows that wages for farmworkers are actually climbing much more quickly.

The reasoning behind this is straightforward. In a free market, wages are determined by the lowest-cost option. If foreign workers can only get a 3.25 percent increase, American workers are likely to see no better offers.

You might be asking if there’s any real influence from campaign contributions behind all this.

Well, consider Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson, who crafted the legislation. He received over $550,000 from agribusiness PACs from 2025 to 2026. And then there’s Republican Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who’s taken almost $90,000 from the agribusiness sector in just her first year in office. Meanwhile, Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has also pulled in nearly $70,000 from the Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND, while previously chairing the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees immigration matters.

It’s essential to grasp the scale of this situation—are we dealing with a few workers? Not quite. In 2025, over 400,000 noncitizens applied for H-2A visas, with nearly all of those applications certified: around 398,258. This legislation would likely push agricultural employers even further towards hiring these types of workers.

To sum it up: Republicans in the House are prioritizing large agricultural corporations over American citizens.

This legislation would grant vast amnesty to any illegal alien who can verify work in farm-related jobs in the last two years, implement a wage cap that could adversely affect both noncitizen and American workers, and notably expand the visa program to make it easier for corporations to obtain foreign labor—all in exchange for significant financial donations from those same entities.

It’s not unusual for Congress to favor major donors over the general public. Unfortunately, that’s the typical state of affairs. However, the blatant nature of the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026 makes it particularly striking. Money in politics is a toxic force, and lawmakers have repeatedly let the American people down. What citizens need are representatives who will focus on the nation’s welfare instead of simply financial gain.

The lawmakers behind this bill are, frankly, not reflecting the commendable values typically associated with conservatism or the Republican Party.