The following is CalCAN’s monthly “Federal Bulletin” to share what we are reading and tracking in terms of the impacts of the Trump administration on agriculture, climate change and social justice, with a focus on California. Your stories can help bring attention to these issues. Please let us know how you or your communities are being affected by emailing info@calclimateag.org.
As of October 10/27/25
American Farmers Are Struggling to Stay in Business
For most of this year, farmers across the country have been facing one challenge after the next in the face of the Trump administration’s actions. Starting in February with the termination of many popular USDA programs and widespread employee layoffs and resignations, farmers are now grappling with the often inconsistent implementation of tariffs, a government shutdown, and the uncertainty created by the failure of Congress to debate, let alone pass a comprehensive farm bill. This is all compounded by instability stemming from the threats to immigrant farmworkers living in fear of often illegal raids and deportation, as well as ongoing natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. Civil Eats published a comprehensive story on October 22 covering many of these topics.
There is a growing drumbeat in the media alerting us to the growing crisis in rural America. As of August, researchers at Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture report that “United States farmer sentiment hit a 12-month low in August as producers expressed less optimism about the future and reported weak financial expectations for their farms in the coming year.”
Another story from Reuters states that “The U.S. federal government shutdown will halt some payments to farmers and delay access to federal farm loans, the latest blow for producers already facing low crop prices, record-high debts and a trade war at the height of the fall harvest.” For a comprehensive summary of the many impacts of the government shutdown on agriculture, read this blog originally posted by NSAC on October 10.
An October 4th story in Fortune notes that the rate of farm bankruptcies has risen sharply in 2025 compared to last year, and that a costly government bailout may be the only hope many farmers have of surviving.
While some farm bill programs received continued funding in this summer’s budget reconciliation, many did not, and with the end of the fiscal year on September 30th, their fate is uncertain, and their authorization will lapse on December 31st. This includes the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, Organic Transitions Program, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, Rural Energy for America Program, Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, and numerous farm loan and capital access programs as well as programs that connect our most vulnerable communities to fresh, local food.
Trump Administration to Stop Measuring Food Insecurity & Farm Labor
As reported in Progressive Farmer, the Trump administration recently decided to stop measuring household food insecurity and reporting on it as the government has for 30 years. This will make it difficult to track the impact of the Republican-supported historical cuts to SNAP food stamps. The same day, it was reported that the USDA would end the annual Agricultural Labor Survey that includes data on farm labor and wages they have been publishing since 1910, creating a regulatory vacuum for setting wages for temporary H-2A agricultural workers.
Immigrant Deportations Are Causing Farm Labor Issues
On October 16, the Washington Post (summarized in Farm Policy News) reported that the U.S. Labor Department has raised a warning that “‘the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens’ is threatening ‘the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers’” which will only grow as immigration authorities expand their efforts under the Trump administration direction.
In more hopeful news, Newsweek reported in early September that as of October 1st, the administration is waiving a new requirement that immigrants report in person for visa renewals. Farm laborers who hold an H-2A visa will be exempted, which not only means they will not face the cost and inconvenience of having to miss work and report to an interview in person. Immigration courts and routine appointments have increasingly been the site of arrests by immigration officials in the past several months.
Links to Immigration Resources for Farm Businesses
CalCAN has a webpage that includes a few of the immigration-related resources that we think are most valuable for employers, employees, and community members.
The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has also compiled a webpage with know-your-rights resources in California for both farmworkers and employers.
As of 8/26/25
Legal Rulings
On August 15, a federal judge ruled that USDA illegally terminated several grants earlier this year and ordered the department to restart payments for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. One of the plaintiffs was the Oakville Bluegrass Collective, which had been awarded a Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities grant, a program that has since been rebranded as the Advancing Markets for Producers program. The judge’s ruling applies only to the plaintiffs, though it may have the effect of encouraging others to challenge the administration in court.
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo on July 31 stating that: “Entities receiving federal funds, like all other entities subject to federal antidiscrimination laws, must ensure that their programs and activities comply with federal law and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or other protected characteristics — no matter the program’s labels, objectives, or intentions.” This has implications for many USDA programs that have attempted to address historical and structural discrimination for farmers of color by prioritizing services and funding for them.
Threats to USDA Programs & Services
NPR reported that staff from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have obtained access to sensitive personal data of farmers who have applied for grants and loans from the USDA. The story includes this sobering quote from Scott Marlow, a former senior official in the U.S. Department of Agriculture: “When we talk about farm loan application records, there is no more personal information anywhere than in that database. The farmer’s entire financial life and the life of their kids and their family, every time they’ve missed a payment, every time they’ve had a hard time, every time they’ve gotten in financial trouble … it’s there.”
As reported on August 18 by AgriPulse (behind a paywall), USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the department would be cutting subsidies for solar and wind renewable energy projects on U.S. farmland that have been available through the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program. They also plan to restrict guaranteed loans and grants under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to small-scale projects, and would no longer fund solar projects containing Chinese components or installations on “certified cropland,” as defined by the Farm Service Agency.
As reported in our July federal bulletin, the USDA announced a plan to reorganize and relocate many of its functions from Washington DC to other parts of the country in five regional hubs. Following pressure from farmers, legislators and the public, they opened a public comment period for a very short window of time, given the major impacts this plan would have (the deadline for comments has been extended to Aug. 31). The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition issued an action alert to facilitate public comment.
Immigration
An opinion column in the August 25 New York Times discusses the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration policy on farmworker laborers. It was written by Robert Rivas, the Speaker of the CA Assembly and Shannon Douglass, CA Farm Bureau president.
Immigration raids are mentally and emotionally impacting kids, UCR report finds. A new report from the University of California, Riverside, finds that immigration raids and deportation actions across the country are taking a mental and emotional toll on immigrant children and those who have parents and other family members who are immigrants. A story in ABC Eyewitness News summarizes the many impacts this can have, including anxiety attacks, interrupted sleep and appetite, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol use in adolescents.
As reported in Civil Eats, a report released in mid-August warns that increasing deportations could cause economic damage in the agriculture as well as the hospitality, and construction industries. The article notes that agricultural employment dropped by 6.5 percent from March to July, during a time when it typically increases. The report also argues that the recent 2% increase in the price of vegetables and meat recorded from April to July may be due in part to the reduced labor force.
Links to Resources
The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has compiled a webpage with know-your-rights resources in California for both farmworkers and employers.
CalCAN also has a webpage that includes a few of the immigration-related resources that we think are most valuable for employers, employees, and community members.
As of 7/28/25
Litigation
On July 8, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s emergency appeal, overturning a lower court ruling that blocked a February executive order calling for massive downsizing of 17 government agencies, including the USDA. The agencies had already been directed to put together lists of the positions they intended to terminate so the reductions in force (RIFs) could be carried out quickly once the ruling was handed down. Though the USDA plan states that they will reduce their workforce only if necessary, the fact is that tens of thousands of employees may receive as little as 30 days’ notice that they no longer have jobs. Some of the terminations are still being challenged in other court cases, and the Supreme Court justices also made it clear that “they haven’t yet resolved whether any specific agency’s reorganization plan is legal.”
Interruptions in USDA Programs & Services
The week after the Supreme Court decision above, USDA asked its existing employees to consider transferring to much-needed vacancies at the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) which lost 20% of its workforce since January due to deferred resignations and RIFs. According to an article in Government Executive, NRCS has vacancies in critical positions such as soil conservationists, and that downsizing is already affecting their ability to process farmer applications. One employee reported that “the agency seemed to be pushing employees to apply by noting their jobs could otherwise be at risk,” and that there are no guarantees that employees may not be forced to relocate in the future. All of these conditions are making for poor morale.
And then, on July 24, USDA released its long-anticipated reorganization plan. Here are some of the most impactful changes as summarized in an Agri-Pulse article:
- Reduction in DC-based staff from 4,600 to 2,000
- Closure of the South Building, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, the George Washington Carver Center in Beltsville, and Braddock Place in Alexandria
- Transfer functions to five hubs across the country, including Raleigh, NC; Kansas City, MI; Indianapolis, IN; Fort Collins, CO, and Salt Lake City, UT
- Align NRCS regional structure with these five hubs
It remains to be seen how many employees will be willing to uproot their lives to maintain their jobs in an increasingly challenging work environment where many of them are carrying two or three times the workload due to these massive cutbacks and resignations. It is not immediately clear whether the reduced cost of living in the five hub areas will lead to a corresponding reduction in pay for USDA employees.
According to Civil Eats, on July 10, the Trump administration published a rule “rescinding a provision that has been in place for more than 30 years to give farmers deemed ‘socially disadvantaged’ a leg up in some federal grant and loan programs.” This announcement was made without the traditional public comment period, and the administration claims (with no evidence) that “past discrimination has been sufficiently addressed and that further race- and sex-based remedies are no longer necessary.” The term socially-disadvantaged farmers and ranchers (SDFRs) was established in the 1990 Farm Bill to give USDA the ability to prioritize or set aside funding for farmers who had been historically discriminated against or shut out of funding. The category includes Black or African American, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander farmers, and women for some programs.
Immigration
In response to the inconsistent messaging and actions coming from the Trump administration regarding immigration enforcement, agriculture organizations are calling on Congress to intervene with legislation to provide relief from the uncertainty and anxiety among farm laborers and employers alike. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act was passed by the House in 2019 and 2021 but never got a vote in the Senate. It has been reintroduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), with co-sponsors Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Adam Gray (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA). and David Valadao (R-CA). The bill would freeze the wages of temporary H-2A workers for a year, provide a fix to H-2A long sought by the dairy industry by making 60,000 H-2A visas available year-round, and provide a path to legal status for ag workers.
CalMatters reported that California saw a 3.1% drop in private-sector employment the week immediately after the Trump administration stepped up its immigration raids in the state. Edward Flores, the study’s lead author notes that “What we know from previous research is that the work that undocumented immigrants or non-citizens do does not exist in a vacuum. If there’s disruptions to the work that undocumented immigrants do, it has ripple effects. A slowdown in one industry could cause slowdowns in other industries.”
Legislation
Budget Reconciliation
Much has been written in the runup and aftermath of the July 4th passage of what Trump dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB). In terms of its implications for agriculture, here are some perspectives:
- What’s Really Inside the Final Budget Reconciliation Bill: A Breakdown of Food and Agriculture Provisions (NSAC blog, July 23) — This blog provides a comprehensive overview of the relatively unprecedented process used to pass the bill and its implications on sustainable agriculture and food systems. In sum: “The bill slashes SNAP benefits by nearly $186 billion – taking food off the plates of hungry children, seniors, and veterans – and directly reinvests more than $50 billion of that to further increase farm subsidies to the largest, wealthiest farmers, while programs that support the vast majority of farmers and rural communities are excluded from the bill entirely.”
The blog goes on to say that the “policy changes included in OBBB are some of the most significant in modern history because of what’s included and what’s left out. For the American food and farm system, the bill resorts to cannibalization – cutting nutrition assistance in order to increase subsidies for some farm programs. This calculated move effectively ends a decades-long era in which federal farm bills were passed by coupling nutrition assistance and farm programs, raising legitimate questions of how, or even whether, future farm bills might pass Congress. Whatever the future holds for federal food and farm policy, it’s not hyperbole to say that the passage of OBBB can be seen as a watershed transition to an uncertain future.”
- Reconciliation raises conservation funding long term but at near-term cost (Agri: Pulse (July 16) — This article covers the fact that the OBBB moved a Biden-era funding pot from the Inflation Reduction Act into several farm bill conservation programs while stripping it of the requirement that the money fund climate-related farming practices. This has the effect in the long term of increasing the baseline funding in programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), but this increase will not happen for a year. It remains to be seen how the understaffing of NRCS, in combination with changes to income and payment limits from the OBBB, will impact the ability of farmers to access the increased funding pool.
Bipartisan Senate Bill Boosts Local Farmers and Expands Access to Healthy Food for Families
Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Jim Justice (R-WV) introduced the Strengthening Local Food Security (SLFS) Act of 2025 (S. 2338). The Act creates a pathway for USDA to enter into cooperative agreements with states and tribal governments to purchase locally grown and raised foods from small, mid-sized, beginning, veteran, or underserved fishers, farmers, and ranchers for distribution in school nutrition and community food assistance programs. The bill also includes support for technical assistance initiatives to support farmers in food safety planning, training, and upgrades required to scale to new commercial wholesale markets. Source: July 18 NSAC press release
Links to Resources
Immigration Clearinghouse
The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has compiled a webpage with know-your-rights resources in California for both farmworkers and employers.
Fact sheet for employers of farmworkers: California Immigrant Worker Protection Act
This is a helpful reference for California employers (farmers and others) who want to know what they are required and prohibited from doing with regard to worksite inspections by immigration enforcement agents.
As of 6/19/25
Budget Bill Moves to Senate
On May 22, House Republicans advanced to the Senate a controversial budget reconciliation bill with a one-vote margin. The bill would strip almost $300 billion from the farm bill baseline, the benchmark against which any changes to funding in future years are calculated. Reducing the baseline has the effect of lowering the floor for where budget negotiations start. The bill also proposes a dramatic cut of $300 billion over 10 years to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the country’s most comprehensive food and nutrition safety net for poor families, all while adding $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. However, as of June 24, it was reported that Senate Republicans could salvage tens of billions of dollars in SNAP spending cuts by making language tweaks to comply with the Senate’s rules.
To read a comprehensive analysis of the devastating impacts of this bill, should it pass, read this blog by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). The Senate has begun deliberations on the bill and plans to deliver it to the President’s desk by July 4.
In early June, the USDA released its 2026 budget proposal, proposing a $7 billion cut to the Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program of NRCS, which provides free expert guidance to willing farmers around the country. As reported in Progressive Farmer, “CTA is considered the backbone of USDA’s conservation programs. NRCS staff help farmers with voluntary plans to implement various conservation practices on their land. NRCS staff advise farmers on how to install a range of practices such as integrating cover crops, managing nutrient runoff, restoring wetlands, or improving habitats.”
Interruptions in USDA Programs & Services
Closures of USDA State Offices and Staff Layoffs:
A federal judge in San Francisco first issued a restraining order in early May to prevent further government employee layoffs (known as “reductions in force” or RIFs) and restructuring at the USDA and 20 other agencies. After extending it by two weeks (through June 5), she followed up on May 23 by indefinitely extending the order. As noted in our last bulletin, according to a May 13 article in FedWeek, this is “the most wide-reaching of numerous legal challenges to the administration’s efforts to cut federal employment in general and to abolish or virtually abolish various individual agencies.” The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing the decision.
In other good news, in early June, USDA Secretary Rollins reversed an earlier decision to close nine California USDA offices. This turnabout came after a group of Democrat members of Congress, led by Senator Adam Schiff, pushed back in a letter to Secretary Rollins. Their leadership protected offices in Bakersfield, Blythe, Los Angeles, Madera, Mt. Shasta, Oxnard, Salinas, Woodland, and Yreka.
Along with Senator Schiff, the following Representatives are to be commended: Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), Jim Costa (D-Fresno), Adam Gray (D-Merced), Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley Village), Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San José).
The action by these lawmakers had an impact beyond California because a day after Rollins’ announcement, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that it would close fewer than half of the offices originally on its list of cuts. Details about the dramatic and welcome reversals in several USDA agencies are available in a June 6 article in Progressive Farmer. According to their reporting, “USDA has no plans to close Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) county offices [which house] both the Farm Service Agency as well as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).”
In a story reported in Agri-Pulse (behind a paywall), approximately 85% of the USDA staff who accepted the Trump administration’s voluntary resignation offer work outside of Washington DC, a fact that contradicts the stated objective of Sec. Rollins to distribute the department’s resources to the states.
Litigation
In May, the Trump administration lost 96% of its federal court rulings, according to Democracy Docket. These decisions were issued by both Republican-appointed judges 72% and Democratic-appointed judges (80%).
On June 5, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit broadly challenging the USDA on its terminations of several grant programs. They are joined by Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative and Agroecology Commons. Examples of the programs they named in the suit include the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Assistance program, the NRCS Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program.
Immigration
There has been a tremendous amount of media coverage about the Trump administration’s immigration policy and enforcement this month, and California has been the epicenter of both protests in defense of immigrant rights as well as a historic use of force by the government against mainly peaceful protesters.
The agriculture industry has started speaking out about the disruptions and fear spreading throughout farmworker communities as targeted raids in fields have resulted in laborers opting to stay home when word spreads about the presence of ICE. In a June 12 story in the Washington Post (behind paywall):
“Maureen McGuire, chief executive of Ventura County’s farm bureau, said between 25% and 45% of farmworkers have stopped showing up for work since the large-scale raids began this month. ‘When our workforce is afraid, fields go unharvested, packinghouses fall behind, and market supply chains, from local grocery stores to national retailers, are affected,’ she said in a statement on Thursday. ‘This impacts every American who eats.’”
The Administration Flip Flops on Farmworkers
On June 15, Trump backed down under pressure from the industry, issuing an order that immigration agents are to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants, and operating hotels.” Two days later, as reported by AgriPulse, the Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reversed course again and is quoted as saying that the President has been clear, “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts.”.
Links to Resources
Immigration Clearinghouse
The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has compiled a webpage with know-your-rights resources in California for both farmworkers and employers.
Fact sheet for employers of farmworkers:
California Immigrant Worker Protection Act: This is a helpful reference for California employers (farmers and others) who want to know what they are required and prohibited from doing with regard to worksite inspections by immigration enforcement agents.
As of 5/27/25
Budget Bill Moves to Senate
On May 22, House Republicans advanced a controversial budget reconciliation bill with a one-vote margin. The bill would strip almost $300 billion from the farm bill baseline, which is essentially the benchmark against which any changes to funding in future years are calculated. Reducing the baseline has the effect of lowering the floor for where budget negotiations start. The bill also proposes a dramatic cut of $300 billion over 10 years to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the country’s most comprehensive food and nutrition safety net for poor families.
The budget reconciliation approach taken by the Republican party has major consequences for the overdue farm bill reauthorization. The reconciliation bill would essentially bypass the typical farm bill process and ram through these cuts with little discussion and along party lines. In replacing the careful and thorough consideration needed to make agriculture policy that has such wide-ranging implications for farmers of all sizes, their communities, and a multitude of hunger, nutrition and local food programs.
Here is the statement from the National Sustainable Agriculture Policy Director, Mike Lavender, about the reconciliation bill as it was being advanced through committee in mid-May:
“The House Agriculture Committee’s approval of budget reconciliation marks the end of a decades-long era in federal food and farm policy. The bill resorts to cannibalization, making unprecedented cuts to nutrition programs and mistaking increased farm subsidies as a panacea for farmers, our food system, and rural America. This choice willfully ignores the severe impacts these cuts will have on families and communities, and shatters the opportunity to pass a comprehensive farm bill. As a result, farm loans and capital access, rural development, food safety, conservation programming, the next generation of farmers and ranchers, domestic market opportunities, local and regional supply chains, and swaths of critical research are left to languish.”
Since 1964, farm bills have traditionally been negotiated and passed by reaching a mutually agreeable compromise between rural agriculture interests and urban food interests and, up until recently, on a bipartisan basis. This fracturing of what is known as “the farm bill coalition” which has united rural, urban, progressive and conservative legislators and created a platform for bipartisan farm and food policy development will have repercussions far into the future.
Let your Senators know that you oppose the budget reconciliation bill and you want to see a deliberative and negotiated complete farm bill. See here for NSAC’s action alert.
Interruptions in USDA Programs & Services
Federal Contracts & Grants:
The Trump administration has sown widespread confusion and instability during the past three months by issuing orders to freeze payments on many USDA contracts, grants and loans, including many authorized by Congress. This is undermining the trust that farmers and those who serve them have in USDA. Many farmers who did not receive service or who faced historical discrimination were just beginning to build trust with the agency. This is the currency that drives conservation.
Update on the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Program:
In 2022, the USDA committed $3 billion in grants to 135 partners across the country in a five-year effort to implement conservation practices and expand market opportunities for climate-smart products. In mid-April, USDA announced that they are rebranding the program to remove the focus on climate smart agriculture, now calling it the Advancing Markets for Producers program.
Approximately 100 of the 135 projects were terminated, with an estimated $152 to $188 million in funds for California projects alone stranded due to the termination (according to an April 30 blog from NSAC focused on the impact of federal funding freezes). Though USDA has indicated that projects could reapply or re-scope their original plan, they have provided very little guidance on what activities will be eligible for continued funding. The June 20 deadline to continue the work is fast approaching, and it is unclear at this time how many of the projects will attempt to re-apply, how many will be successful, and how many will abandon their work. What is clear is that the largest investment at the nexus of agriculture and climate change ever made by the U.S. government in research, technical assistance, marketplace strategies and incentives to farmers has been gutted, just as the benefits and best practices were starting to emerge.
Closures of USDA State Offices and Staff Layoffs:
As of May 15, more than 15,000 USDA employees — 15% of the agency’s total workforce — have taken one of the Trump administration’s financial incentive offers to leave the agency. Of these people, more than 2,400 worked for NRCS. Sec. Rollins recently stated that she has no further plans to offer buyouts for USDA employees.
However, this is not expected to be the final tally of the agency downsizing, as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition reports in its May 12 blog that predicts at least twice as many positions may be eliminated. In their blog, NSAC goes into detail on lessons learned during the first Trump presidency about the many ways that staff downsizing and the relocation of whole USDA divisions undermined the effectiveness of many agricultural programs and services, to the detriment of American farmers.
A federal judge in Northern California extended by two weeks her original restraining order (now through June 5) preventing further government employee layoffs and restructuring at the USDA and 20 other agencies. According to a May 13 article in FedWeek, this is “the most wide-reaching of numerous legal challenges to the administration’s efforts to cut federal employment in general and to abolish or virtually abolish various individual agencies.” The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing the decision. Sec. Rollins claims that she has a restructuring plan for the agency ready to announce, and that it will involve moving some functions out of Washington DC.
Honor Our Farmers Act
There is still time to sign on to the Honor Our Farmers Act that urges members of Congress to force USDA to honor all signed contracts with farmers and release all withheld funds.
Litigation
The Trump administration lost a lawsuit brought by farmers and environmental groups, and as a result, the USDA must restore climate change information that it had removed from its website.
Immigration
New hope for farmworkers with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act
As reported in the Hartford Sentinel on May 15, GOP Congressman David Valadao has joined a bipartisan effort to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that would modify the visa process and provide a path to legal status for migrant farm workers. The bill is also backed by Democrats Jim Costa and Zoe Lofgren along with Republican Dan Newhouse.
Legal Victory in Federal Court for Farmworker Protection from Unlawful ICE Action
In another legal loss for the Trump administration, as reported in CalMatters on April 29, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction barring the Border Patrol from conducting warrantless immigration stops in California.” The full article is worth reading – here is the summary:
The ruling came in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed after the El Centro Border Patrol traveled to Kern County to conduct a three-day sweep in January, detaining day laborers, farm workers and others.
The ruling prohibits Border Patrol agents from taking similar actions, restricting them from stopping people unless they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in violation of U.S. immigration law. It also bars agents from carrying out warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
“You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Thurston said during a hearing in Fresno.
Trump’s New Penalty for Undocumented Immigrants: Billions of Dollars in Fines
In an attempt to pressure immigrants to voluntarily leave the country, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they will fine undocumented immigrants $1,000 per day, though it is unclear if any fines have been collected.
Links to Resources & Action Alerts
Fact sheet for employers of farmworkers: California Immigrant Worker Protection Act
This is a helpful reference for California employers (farmers and others) who want to know what they are required and prohibited to do with regard to worksite inspections by immigration enforcement agents.
Impact Map: The Impact Map provides timely data—as it becomes available—on policy, funding, workforce changes and their localized effect. The Map can be filtered by sector, including for food and agriculture.
As of 4/21/25
Interruptions in USDA Programs & Services
Federal Contracts & Grants:
The Trump administration has sown widespread confusion and instability during the past three months by issuing orders to freeze payments on many USDA contracts, grants and loans, including many authorized by Congress. This is undermining the trust that farmers and those who serve them have in USDA. Many farmers who did not receive service or who faced historical discrimination were just beginning to build trust with the agency. This is the currency that drives conservation.
Here is an update on a few of the climate-related interruptions as of this writing:
Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Program — In 2022, the USDA committed $3 billion in grants to 135 partners across the country to implement conservation practices and expand market opportunities to help meet the increased consumer demand for climate-smart products. In mid-April, USDA announced that they are rebranding the program to remove the focus on climate smart agriculture, will honor outstanding payments due as of April 13, and will resume funding—but only for some. Projects that do not allocate at least 65% of their budget to direct payments to farmers must reapply, though no process or guidelines for doing so are publicly available as of this writing. While this announcement is welcome news for some, others remain in limbo and uncertain about whether or how to proceed. Many of these projects may be forced to reduce or eliminate efforts to provide outreach and technical assistance to farmers and research into methods for measuring the climate benefits of farming practices. We are concerned about USDA’s unprecedented decision to change the rules midway through a program with agreements that have been fully executed and that took many months to negotiate, leaving farmers and the organizations that support them behind.
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) — USDA suspended at least $500 million in funding for food banks nationwide, stating the program is under review. This comes on the heels of cuts in March to three other food assistance programs that serve the most vulnerable (the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program and the Local Foods for Schools program).
Rural Energy for America (REAP), Empowering Rural America (New ERA) and the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) programs — After being paused for a couple of months, funds are now moving again (as directed by a recent decision by a federal judge, summarized below), albeit with prescribed program alterations that require applicants to eliminate all consideration of climate change and diversity and equity.
Closures of USDA State Offices and Staff Layoffs:
According to a story in Progressive Farmer, as of mid-April approximately 16,000 USDA employees had accepted a deal that would pay their salary through the end of September if they agreed to resign. In spite of that significant loss of capacity, USDA leadership “has warned its 100,000-plus employees that major staff cuts are coming, offices will be closed, and people will be forced to relocate if they want to keep their jobs.”
Approximately 6,000 USDA probationary employees were fired in February, but then a judge issued a 45-day stay in early March, set to expire on April 18. The workers were to receive administrative pay but were not expected to resume their duties, though it is unclear whether that has happened. As of this writing, their fate is uncertain, and many news articles have reported on the difficult situation they are in waiting to be fired a second time, or perhaps be asked to return to work.
Honor Our Farmers Act
Since January, billions in federal funding for farmers and organizations has been frozen — despite lawfully signed contracts and court orders directing funding to flow. This means farmers with crops in the ground have been left without markets for their crops, education and food access programs for farmers and families have been cancelled, and thousands of workers have been abruptly laid off. The process and approach to freezing funds has been anything but transparent, with farmers and organizations stuck waiting for months, and it is affecting nearly every segment of food and agriculture. This doesn’t have to be happening: Congress has abdicated both its responsibility and power to check the Administration’s overreach and disregard for signed and legally executed contracts. They need to step up and demand that USDA honors its contracts and pays farmers and organizations.
We urge you to contact your members of Congress; Use this form to contact your elected officials urging them to force USDA to honor all signed contracts and release all withheld funds. https://secure.everyaction.com/Sae1dwnpZ0G-OnqYvbTT7g2
Litigation
In a victory for environmental advocates and farmers, in mid-April U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island “ordered the Agriculture Department and four other agencies to release frozen funding for Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law conservation and energy programs” (as reported in Farm Policy News on April 17). To comply with this ruling, USDA is directed to immediately release all IRA funds earmarked for many programs including:
- Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Program
- NRCS programs such as EQIP, Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Regional Conservation Partnership Program
- Urban and Community Forestry Program
- Renewable energy programs (Rural Energy for America (REAP), Empowering Rural America (New ERA) and the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE))
- Other IRA-funded agreements and contracts
Immigration
The California Department of Justice has updated a fact sheet on the Immigrant Worker Protection Act, answering questions about immigrant rights in the workplace. This is a good resource for employers seeking to understand their rights and responsibilities related to immigration enforcement authorities. Two other good resources for farmworker employers are: (1) This blog from the Farm Bureau’s Farm Employers Labor Service; (2) This webpage by the National Immigration Law Center.
CalMatters published an important piece of investigative journalism regarding a January 7th immigration raid by Border Patrol agents in Kern County that targeted farmworkers and agricultural businesses. The reporters found that 77 of the 78 people targeted had no prior criminal history, contrary to statements made by Border Patrol at the time. This action has legal implications for the approach taken by the Trump administration and is a story worth reading.
Links to Resources & Action Alerts
Impact Map
The Impact Map provides timely data—as it becomes available—on policy, funding, workforce changes and their localized effect. The Map can be filtered by sector, including for food and agriculture.
USDA Appointments
A number of appointments to USDA positions have been made in the past couple of weeks. Those most pertinent to CalCAN’s focus on climate and agriculture are:
- Aubrey Bettencourt, Chief of NRCS — Aubrey hails from California where she served as President and CEO of the Almond Alliance and also the Director of Sustainability at Western United Dairies.
- Jaye Hamby, Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture — Hamby “led and directed proprietary research efforts” before joining USDA, according to a department press release. He has a doctorate in agricultural education with a specialization in ag economics from Oklahoma State University. NIFA provides research grants to colleges and universities.
- Tucker Stewart, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations — Stewart has been general counsel and a senior ag adviser to Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
As of 3/21/25
Interruptions in USDA Programs & Services
Failure to Honor Contracts & Grants:
The Trump administration has sown widespread confusion and instability during the past two months by issuing orders to freeze payments on many USDA contracts, grants and loans, including many authorized by Congress. This is undermining the trust that farmers and those who serve them have in USDA. Here is an update on a few of the climate-related interruptions as of this writing:
Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Program — In 2022, the USDA committed $3 billion in grants to 135 partners across the country to implement conservation practices and expand market opportunities to help meet the increased consumer demand for climate-smart products. They have informed the grant recipients that their agreements are under review, with no indication of when they may be reimbursed for expenses already incurred or for future work. See this comprehensive blog by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition for details.
EQIP and CSP — In February, we started hearing reports from farmers that they were not receiving reimbursements for conservation practices the USDA had already committed (see our blog here). The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) both cover numerous climate smart practices that are in high demand by farmers. Following a court order, on Feb. 20 the USDA announced it had released $20 million of the EQIP and CSP grants owed to farmers but is still reviewing many of their other climate and equity-related commitments funded through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) — The purpose of LFPA is to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency. The cooperative agreements allow the states, tribes and territories to procure and distribute local and regional foods and beverages that are healthy, nutritious, unique to their geographic areas and that meet the needs of the population. As reported by Politico, USDA Secretary Rollins has stated that she considers these programs “non-essential” and its future is uncertain. Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) has a helpful explainer about what this interruption and uncertainty means on the ground for one of their powerful programs.
Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI) — RFSI builds resilience in the food supply chain to provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, to support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, fair wages, and new and safe job opportunities. CDFA administers the program and recently told grant recipients that they received notice from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service that payments for RFSI have been paused for all work conducted and invoiced after January 19, 2025. They have no federal guidance on the details of the review, its timeline, or program continuation.
Please contact your members of Congress and tell them to act now to address these interruptions in funding. Here is an action alert from CalCAN with more information.
Closures of USDA State Offices:
On March 14, Progressive Farmer reported that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated the leases for 111 USDA offices around the country. California is hit the hardest with nine offices getting shuttered, including five NRCS offices, two FSA offices, a Forest Service office and an Agricultural Marketing Service office closure. Many of the services NRCS offers to farmers for loans and conservation payments must be conducted in person, making it almost impossible for services in these areas to be provided. To find out if your local office is closed, check here.
Staff Layoffs:
In February, President Trump’s Office of Personnel Management fired thousands of federal employees in several agencies who had been recently hired and were still on probationary status. Subsequent court orders required that they be reinstated, but an Agri-Pulse story on March 19 reported that the USDA “instead have placed them on administrative leave with pay, citing logistical challenges in reinstating” the 5,714 workers.
Litigation
Two lawsuits have been filed to challenge the Trump administration on actions that have taken to slowing progress on climate change in the agriculture sector:
- In late Feb., Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued the USDA for removing department webpages focused on climate change. They allege this is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring USDA to restore access to key webpages and preventing USDA from removing additional climate-related information.
- In mid-March, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s withholding of Congressionally appropriated funding through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a bill signed into law in 2022 to invest in projects across the country that both curb climate change and stimulate the economy. The IRA included $20 billion to be distributed by USDA for agriculture conservation practices such as improving soil health, conserving water and reducing methane emissions on livestock operations. The California NRCS website has more information about how California farmers have benefitted from these investments. The Earthjustice lawsuit was filed on behalf of farmers and nonprofit organizations who were awarded USDA grants through the IRA.
On March 21, Bloomberg Law reported that a federal judge “preliminarily halted the Trump administration from enforcing portions of the president’s sweeping executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that it considers illegal and discriminatory.” Whether and if the Trump administration will comply with this ruling is unknown at this time.
Immigration
On March 18, Courthouse News reported that California’s Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, in her state of the judiciary address, remarked that while the federal government has the right to enforce immigration law, they cannot require California to do so. California has passed two relevant laws, one that prohibits state and local resources from assisting federal immigration enforcement (Senate Bill 54) and another that restricts civil arrests from occurring in a California courthouse without a warrant (Assembly Bill 668).
