Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has announced a legal victory for farmers in Alabama and beyond, successfully challenging a U.S. Department of Labor rule impacting the H-2A Visa Program, a temporary agricultural worker program. In September, Attorney General Marshall joined attorneys general from Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia to oppose the regulation, which they argued unlawfully burdened farmers.
The attorneys general supported a lawsuit filed by Kentucky farmers in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The court granted a preliminary injunction, halting the implementation of the rule. The regulation would have required farmers to allow temporary foreign workers to engage in collective bargaining, a move the coalition argued was outside the scope of federal authority.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s failed attempts to force collective bargaining on Alabama farmers is yet another example of why Americans voted them out,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Even on their way out the door, this Administration continues to wreak havoc on American industry. We will keep fighting them until the moving vans arrive at the White House.”
The H-2A Visa Program, established in 1986, enables farmers to hire foreign workers temporarily when no domestic labor is available. Proponents of the lawsuit argued that the new regulations imposed additional, unnecessary burdens on an already critical labor source for the agricultural industry.
This court decision marks another chapter in the ongoing disputes between state governments and federal labor policies, with implications for farmers relying on temporary foreign labor to sustain their operations.
