SerpApi.Org
It is an undeniable reality that immigration played a key role in the 2024 elections. Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on the issue every chance he had, and countless polls showed that Americans desperately wanted change following the disastrous immigration policies of the Biden era, which authorized the mass migration of illegal immigrants into our nation.
Given that, it would be natural to presume that Republicans in Congress would look to deliver on the mandate handed to them by the American people. You would be wrong.
In their latest kowtow to corporate megadonors, 48 Republican members of Congress, along with a few choice Democrats, have unveiled the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act of 2026, H.R. 9535.
What "workforce" are they securing, you might ask?
Well, none other than the hundreds of thousands of illegal alien farmworkers in the country.
But before you jump to conclusions, this legislation, while it does grant mass amnesty to illegal aliens, is by no means a handout to undocumented workers. No, this legislation is squarely aimed at advancing and protecting the profits of multimillion- and even billion-dollar corporations of the agricultural sector, all in exchange for generous campaign contributions to the Republicans morally depraved enough to support it.
It is hard to find words to describe this legislation other than "ethically corrupt." The bill allows illegal foreign workers who can prove they worked as farm laborers — as defined in the bill — for at least six months in the last two years to receive special status by waiving certain legal bars to admissibility and effectively placing them on a fast track to H-2A visa status.
This means they would be considered legally present in the United States — hence the mass amnesty.
But the legislation does not stop there.
It also introduces an Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) cap of 3.25 percent. What that effectively does is cap wage increases for all farm workers — foreign and domestic, citizens and noncitizens — at 3.25 percent annually, even though labor market data shows the market price for farm workers is rising much faster than that.
The reason for this is that, just like in any free market, farm labor wages are set by the lowest-cost option. Therefore, if foreign workers are only able to receive a 3.25 percent yearly wage increase, then American farm workers will receive no better.
You might be wondering if there are any teeth to the claim that all this is being done in exchange for some campaign cash.
Well, Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson, the author of the legislation and the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, received over $550,000 from agribusiness PACs between 2025 and 2026.
Republican Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz has taken nearly $90,000 from the agribusiness sector in the last year, and she has only been in Congress since 2023.
Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has taken nearly $70,000 from the Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND. McCaul also received the American Farm Bureau Federation's "Friend of Farm Bureau" award. The irony? McCaul previously served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the leading authority in the House on immigration.
It's also important to address the scale here: Are we talking about a few dozen farm workers? Hundreds? Try hundreds of thousands. In 2025, over 400,000 noncitizens applied for H-2A visas, and almost all of them were certified: 398,258. This legislation would only further incentivize agricultural employers to use these types of workers.
In short: Republicans in the House of Representatives are selling out the American people and siding with large agricultural corporations.
They're pushing forward legislation that would grant mass amnesty to any illegal alien who can prove he or she has worked in farm or farm-adjacent labor in the last two years, introduce a wage cap that would hurt not only noncitizen workers but Americans as well, and fundamentally expand the visa program itself, making it easier for large corporations to secure foreign labor. All of it comes in return for tens of thousands of dollars in donations from those very organizations. (RELATED: When Lawmakers Go Missing, Don't Blame The Public For Wondering What Happened)
It's not uncommon for Congress to prioritize large donors or corporate lobbyists over the everyday American. In fact, it is sort of their de facto legislative setting. However, it is rarely as blatant as it is with the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act of 2026. Money in politics is noxious. Lawmakers have forsaken the American people over and over again, and Americans deserve politicians who will prioritize the well-being of our nation over the size of their campaign coffers.
The lawmakers supporting this legislation could not be any less emblematic of any commendable principle historically associated with conservatism or the Republican Party.
