By Yadira Lopez, Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow
Most of the work of getting produce into grocery stores, restaurants, and homes is done by immigrants. Immigrants are the foundation of the U.S. agriculture system, not only as workers but also as consumers. Yet many are left vulnerable to exploitation, poverty, and food insecurity despite everything they contribute to our agricultural system and economy.
From 2020 to 2022, about 68% of crop farmworkers were immigrants.[1] In this case, the term immigrant can refer to undocumented people, those on short-term or longer-term visas, legal permanent residents, and U.S. citizens. However, most immigrant agricultural workers are those who are undocumented or receive visas to come to the U.S.
The H-2A visa is part of a specific program allowing farmers to hire non-citizens for seasonal temporary work, and they are required to provide housing, transportation, and the state-set minimum wage.[2] In 2025, about 7,450 H-2A visas were approved in Oklahoma out of a total of 144,901 for agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting-related work.[3]
Although providing jobs and income, tying a person’s legal status to work, pay, and housing leaves workers susceptible to exploitation and abuse. There are mounting cases where workers are not paid.[4] More generally, they work extremely long hours without breaks.[5] They work with heavy equipment and are surrounded by pesticides. They are more prone to injury and illness through this work. Immigrant farmers work in harsh and exhausting conditions, barely making minimum wage, to harvest food for people nationwide.
It’s important to understand the grueling work immigrants take on in agriculture, especially since these are low-paying jobs without benefits that U.S. citizens are not keen to take. In many cases, these workers escape precarious situations and are looking for better opportunities in the U.S., only to be placed in positions of increased injury, poor health, poverty, and food insecurity. Even with the small benefits given through visa programs, these immigrant workers do not have access to healthcare, legal protections, and other resources that U.S. citizens do. If these are the conditions visa-sponsored immigrant workers must face, one can only imagine the further abuse and exploitation undocumented workers face in agriculture work.
Amidst these harmful work conditions, immigrant workers pay into U.S. taxes and economy. In FY2023, undocumented immigrant households paid $89.8 billion in taxes, which helps fund social service programs for Americans, and had $299 billion in spending power.[6] They work low-wage jobs that enable us to put food on our tables while struggling to feed and house themselves and their families.
However, fear and chaos created by mass raids and current immigration policies are causing negative downstream effects. With a 155,000 person drop in agriculture jobs from March to July 2025, the decrease of immigrant workers in agriculture has started to disrupt food supply chains and produce distribution.[7] Many immigrant families are staying home to avoid any potential raid or arrest, which means families are no longer working, have limited income, and can no longer purchase food. For children, many are missing out on school meals and resources due to families’ valid fear. Immigrant families are more wary of food banks and public benefits in an effort to keep their families together and safe. This fear and chaos affects individuals but also their children, spouses, siblings, those close and far, and the larger systems we all are embedded in.
If we want to solve hunger and food insecurity at the state and federal level, it is crucial to address the needs, vulnerabilities, and fear of our immigrant population. It is ironic that the people who grow and pick our food are put at the bottom of our priority list when it comes to providing food aid and public benefits. They contribute more than they are given back (both materially but also socially). More importantly, immigrant rights to food, work, and housing are human rights, and they cannot continue to be ignored because of people far removed from the struggles of underserved communities. They cannot be reduced to just their status and productivity; they are humans deserving protection and dignity.
[1] Farm Labor (2025). U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor#size
[2] Tremblay, H & Kurn, J. (2025). Immigration and the Food System. Farm Aid. https://www.farmaid.org/blog/fact-sheet/immigration-and-the-food-system/
[3] H-2A Employer Data (n.d.). USCIS. https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-2a-employer-data-hub
[4] Bacon, D. (2025). Farmworker youth take to the streets as deportations and displacement threaten their parents. Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2025/06/03/farmworker-youth-take-to-the-streets-as-deportations-and-displacement-threaten-their-parents/
[5] Immigrant Farmworkers and America’s Food Production: 5 Things to Know (2022). FWD. https://www.fwd.us/news/immigrant-farmworkers-and-americas-food-production-5-things-to-know/
[6] New Data: Immigrants Keep Economy Strong, As Congress Considers Wasting Billions on Mass Deportations (2025). American Immigration Council. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/immigrants-keep-economy-strong-as-congress-debates-mass-deportation/
[7] Lynch, R. G., Ettlinger, M. & Sifre, E. (2025) Warning Signs of the Economic Harms from Deportations. Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5384966
Our Biggest Labor and Immigration Stories of 2025 (2025). Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2025/12/22/our-biggest-labor-and-immigration-stories-of-2025/