Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 27

Trump Administration Opens H-2A Dairy Visas After 39-Year Ban as Farmer Discontent Grows

Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 27

Trump Administration Opens H-2A Dairy Visas After 39-Year Ban as Farmer Discontent Grows

Q: With guest worker wages being cut, will consumers see lower milk prices?

Probably not in any noticeable way. Lower H-2A wage rates can reduce labor costs for some dairy farms, especially now that the program has been opened to more dairy jobs. But labor is only one part of the price consumers pay for milk. Processing, packaging, refrigeration, transportation, wholesale margins, and retail markups usually have a bigger effect on supermarket prices than changes in farm labor costs alone. The savings may also be smaller than they appear. H-2A employers still must pay for housing, transportation, visa-related costs, and compliance expenses, and some dairy operators say they cannot simply cut pay if they want to keep experienced workers. In some states, higher state wage floors can also limit how much labor costs actually fall. There is also no clear evidence so far that the wage change is being passed through to shoppers. The available forecasts for milk and dairy prices point more to supply, herd size, feed costs, energy, and broader inflation than to guest-worker wages. USDA-linked outlooks have shown mixed milk-price trends for 2026, with some dairy prices easing, but not because of this policy change. So the more likely effect is that lower guest-worker wages help some farms manage costs or margins rather than produce a clear drop in retail milk prices. If consumers see cheaper milk, it will more likely be driven by overall milk supply and broader market conditions than by this labor rule alone.

1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 27

Dairy farms can now use the H-2A guest-worker program for the first time since it began in 1987, under a Trump administration memo and USDA release issued with little public fanfare.
The shift followed years of lobbying by major dairy groups and comes as the White House tries to calm farmers angered by high fuel and fertilizer costs and tariffs.
398,000 H-2A visas were approved in fiscal 2025—about 45% more than five years earlier—but dairy jobs had long been excluded because the program was designed for temporary or seasonal work.
Stephen Miller-aligned immigration hard-liners and union advocates attacked the move as a threat to U.S. jobs and wages, while dairy leaders warned it could face legal challenges because most dairy work is year-round.
Rep. Glenn Thompson is expected to introduce bipartisan legislation within days to broaden the program further, underscoring that the administrative change may be only a first step.