Farm Bill Trades Legal Status for E-Verify: What It Means for Workers and Employers

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2025 is a massive overhaul of how we handle agricultural labor, essentially offering a grand bargain: legal status for long-term farmworkers in exchange for mandatory, industry-wide electronic employment verification.

The Path to Legal Status: CAW Status and the $1,000 Fee

Title I creates a new “Certified Agricultural Worker Status” (CAW) for undocumented farmworkers who can prove they worked at least 1,035 hours in U.S. agriculture over the two years before the bill was introduced (Sec. 101). This status is good for five years and can be extended if the worker maintains at least 575 hours of farm work annually (Sec. 103). This is huge for stability, allowing workers to travel and work legally.

However, there’s a major catch for CAW holders and their families: they are explicitly blocked from receiving most federal means-tested benefits, like food assistance or certain housing programs (Sec. 102). Think of it as a legal status that lets you work and stay, but keeps you off the social safety net. For those who meet the long-term work requirements (up to 10 years of prior work plus several years as a CAW holder), there’s an optional path to a green card. But even then, they must pay a mandatory $1,000 penalty fee on top of all other processing costs to adjust their status (Sec. 111). It's a clear trade-off: stability in exchange for self-sufficiency and a mandatory fee for long-term residency.

H-2A Overhaul: Protections and Wage Caps

Title II takes a sledgehammer to the existing H-2A temporary worker program, aiming to streamline it while adding significant worker protections. The government must create a single, electronic platform within 12 months for employers to file all necessary paperwork (Sec. 201). This should cut down on the current bureaucratic nightmare for employers.

For workers, the bill mandates several key protections: employers must now have a written plan to prevent heat illness (Sec. 202), and recruiters are strictly prohibited from charging workers any recruitment fees (Sec. 251). If you’re an H-2A worker, this means your employer has to pay for your travel and housing, and you shouldn’t be getting squeezed by shady middlemen just to get the job.

Crucially, the bill introduces a temporary cap on how much the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR)—the minimum wage for H-2A workers—can increase. From 2027 through 2035, the annual increase is capped at 3.25% (Sec. 202). This is a win for employers concerned about rapidly rising labor costs, but it means that the wages of U.S. farmworkers (which are often tied to the AEWR) will grow more slowly than they might otherwise.

Mandatory E-Verify for the Entire Ag Industry

Title III is the regulatory hammer that balances the scale for employers. It mandates that the entire agricultural industry—from the largest farms down to those with just one employee—must adopt a new electronic employment verification system (E-Verify) on a phased schedule (Sec. 302). This means that once the CAW application window closes, large farms will start using the system within six months, and the smallest employers must follow within 15 months.

For employers, this means a massive compliance shift. The current voluntary system is replaced by a mandatory one that preempts state and local verification laws (Sec. 301). If you hire someone, you must run their information through the system within three days. While this provides certainty about who is authorized to work, it also carries heavy penalties for misuse, such as screening applicants before they are hired or failing to follow the process correctly (Sec. 301).

For workers, the system includes new security features to combat identity theft, such as photo matching and the ability for individuals to monitor their own Social Security number usage (Sec. 301). The bill also requires the government to set up assistance at local USDA offices to help farmworkers contest a “tentative nonconfirmation” (when the system flags them as unauthorized), recognizing that many farmworkers might lack the resources to fix bureaucratic errors on their own (Sec. 302).

Housing Stability for Rural Families

Finally, the bill includes a significant investment in rural housing. Title II authorizes hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade to preserve and build farmworker housing (Sec. 228). It also creates a permanent program to restructure existing loans on older, government-financed apartment buildings, ensuring they remain affordable for low-income tenants and farm laborers (Sec. 221). For low-income families in rural areas, this means a dedicated effort to stop the loss of affordable housing stock, a major concern as older loans mature and properties are sold off.