Supreme Court to hear migrant farm worker case

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case over the constitutional authority of federal agencies to handle migrant farmworker disputes.

The case, Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, focuses on a New Jersey farm that was accused of violating an employment agreement under the H-2A visa program.

The H-2A visa program is a federally administered work visa system that allows agricultural employers to hire immigrant workers for temporary or seasonal jobs when there are not enough U.S. workers available.

The Department of Labor accused Sun Valley Orchards of failing to provide adequate housing, meal plans, transportation and work hours for H-2A employees. The department imposed hundreds of thousands of dollars in liabilities for violations at the farm.

Lawyers for the Department of Labor said employers that use the H-2A program to hire workers must comply with federal guidelines to ensure American citizens are not disadvantaged by the program.

“Administrative adjudications provide an efficient mechanism for ensuring that employers who participate in that vast program comply with those terms and conditions,” the lawyers wrote in a brief to the court.

Lawyers for Sun Valley Orchards argued that the department violated Article III of the Constitution, which gives power for federal adjudications to the judiciary branch, not the executive.

The lawyers argued the Department of Labor overstepped in its pursuit of adjudicating the claim.

“There is no precedent or history supporting agency adjudication of such employment-related issues,” lawyers for the farm wrote. “The government’s contrary argument would vastly expand the public rights exception for immigration-related claims to encompass myriad issues involving temporary workers.”

Justices on the court will decide whether the Department of Labor can adjudicate immigration-related violations in the fall. The court will likely decide the case in 2027.