MADISON — On Tuesday evening, six conservative candidates for U.S. Senate took part in the North Alabama U.S. Senate Candidate Forum hosted by the Republican Women of Madison.
During the event, candidates were asked for their views on a number of topics, including the seasonal and agricultural worker visa program, known as the H-2A program. The group also addressed H-2B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign nationals for temporary, non-agricultural work when there is a shortage of U.S. workers.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argued that while H-2A visas have been "valuable" for America's farmers, the H-2B program is being exploited, largely by big tech.
"H-2A has been a valuable addition to our farmers," said Marshall. "One of the things that I will try to do as a United States senator is make that program affordable so that they're able to use those seasonal workers, who are not United States citizens, here for a 12-month period to have the ability to be able to assist farmers. The H-2B program is being abused, and specifically being abused by big tech."
He added, "When you see mass layoffs in Microsoft, removing Americans from jobs for which they were employed, and they're filling those needs with H-2B workers, what does that tell you? That it is impacting American workers in a way that's designed to maximize corporate profits and not to deal with the real issues of dollars and cents for American families. "
Former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson pledged to prioritize Alabama workers over H-2A and H-2B recipients.
"I will never do anything that would take away a job or hurt an Alabama worker," Hudson stated. "We currently don't have a jobs problem. We have a workforce participation problem. Making sure that we bring back our dollars to this state to educate our workforce and our kids for the good-paying jobs is what a senator is supposed to do. Making sure that we revamp all of our immigration issues so that we don't negatively impact the worker, but we also don't have the scourge of criminal activity taking over our communities, is what we should do, and I will do as your next US Senator."
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) said he supported a well-managed visa program if those taking advantage of it are contributing to American industry.
"Certainly, there's an opportunity for workforce visas," acknowledged Moore. "Now, what I recommended to Secretary Brooke Rollins is that those visas for agriculture, those are normally a 10-month visa, and they're all in the same window. I recommended to Secretary Rollins to allow a sliding scale on that so they can come any 10 months of any year, but allow folks to come at different times, because often there's a production agriculture element where they're putting seed in the ground and they're harvesting. But then there's an offseason. So if we do a floating graph on that sliding scale for that 10 months."
Added Moore, "I think it allows farmers to use those visas more wisely."
Long-time cattle farmer Rodney Walker called the visa programs "broken," but argued that "immigrant labor" will always be needed.
"I believe the H-2A and the H-2B programs are broken. I feel like that. The last time that we did anything along those lines was when President Reagan was in office," noted Walker. "I think that we need to revamp our programs, and I think that we'll always need immigrant labor to come in and help with some of these crops and pick tomatoes and do things that other people don't want to do."
Cardiac surgeon Dale Shelton Deas Jr. argued the H-2A and H-2B visa programs are necessary as recipients fill jobs Americans are uninterested in.
"I think that with the Biden administration the borders were released, and allowed to have all the illegal immigrants into the country for Democratic votes. That's my personal opinion," Deas said. "The reason why we should continue the H1 A and B visa programs, but revamp them, is because they are important in terms of allowing workers into the United States and do jobs that people in the United States don't necessarily want to do."
Two-time submarine commanding officer, Seth Burton, expressed support for seasonal workers but said the visa programs need to be "more clearly defined."
"I do support seasonal workers. We have to have the normal processes of our economy work," contended Burton. "And sometimes our citizens will do it, sometimes they don't want to, and there are other people who will do it. So we designed the system to accommodate that, and you have the rule of law that then is executed, and that's where we're breaking down. We don't clearly define the systems to do what we want to accomplish."
In fiscal year 2026, the U.S. government has authorized over 130,000 H-2B visas, doubling the average cap of 66,000 with an additional 64,716 visas, while H-2A visas have roughly tripled over the last decade.
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