President Donald Trump has thrown out a federal rule from former President Joe Biden that had sought to give collective bargaining rights to foreign farm workers while excluding American farm workers from such benefits.
The rule, proposed by the Biden administration in 2024, would have allowed foreign H-2A visa workers — those foreign workers who are hired on United States farms — to secure collective bargaining rights that are not afforded to American farm workers.
Trump’s Labor Department has since announced that the rule has been suspended.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach had led 17 states in suing the Biden administration for what he argued was a clear violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by offering union rights to foreigners while federal law explicitly excludes agricultural employees from collective bargaining.
“Once again, Joe Biden is putting America last,” Kobach said at the time.
Last year, two federal judges sided with Kobach and the states, finding that the rule violated the NLRA in giving collective bargaining rights to foreign H-2A visa workers that their American counterparts would be excluded from.