Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2025

Overhauls the farm labor system with three intertwined shifts: legalizes existing unauthorized farmworkers, restructures the H-2A temporary agricultural visa, and mandates E-Verify across the entire agricultural industry. Current farmworkers with at least 1,035 hours of agricultural work over the past two years could apply for 'Certified Agricultural Worker' status — a renewable five-year work permit — and those with 10+ years of farm-work history could later petition for a green card. The H-2A program gets a comprehensive rewrite: a single electronic platform replaces today's paper-heavy system, a new Portable H-2A visa pilot lets workers change agricultural employers without restarting the petition process, and wage rules are restructured to moderate the Adverse Effect Wage Rate volatility that employers have long objected to. Every U.S. agricultural employer — roughly 2 million farms and farm-related businesses — would be required to use E-Verify for new hires, phased in over several years, and penalties for identity fraud and document misuse would rise. USDA's Rural Housing Service programs would be expanded to preserve existing farm labor housing, fund new construction, and offer rental-assistance vouchers for farmworkers. Foreign labor recruiters working in U.S. agriculture would have to register with the federal government, with enforcement against abusive recruiters strengthened. The H-2A reforms represent a long-sought regulatory win for agricultural employers and groups like the American Farm Bureau and Western Growers Association; the E-Verify mandate creates a nationwide workplace-verification database that civil-liberties groups have long flagged as a back-door national identity system.

• The H-2A temporary agricultural visa gets a major rewrite long sought by agricultural employers and groups like the American Farm Bureau and Western Growers Association — a new portable H-2A visa (workers can change agricultural employers without restarting the petition), a streamlined electronic platform replacing paper-heavy filings, and wage-rule changes that moderate Adverse Effect Wage Rate volatility. USDA Rural Housing provisions also steer additional federal funding toward farm-labor housing development and preservation.
• Mandates E-Verify across the entire U.S. agricultural industry — every agricultural employer would be required to query a federal electronic database for each new hire, creating nationwide workplace-verification infrastructure that civil-liberties groups have long flagged as a back-door national identity system. New or expanded criminal penalties for identity-document fraud and document misuse are also added.