Matthew Kinsella-Walsh is a graduate researcher with the UC Santa Barbara Community Labor Center and the Organizing Knowledges Project who researches agricultural economics and labor in the North American strawberry industry. In an April 22 Los Angeles Times opinion piece, he highlighted the economic impacts of recent immigration enforcement raids on California's Central Coast agricultural economy, arguing in favor of providing basic protections to farmworkers in the wake of a new federal policy allowing steep cuts to wages for workers on temporary visas known as H-2A workers.
"Until October 2025, the wages paid to H-2A workers were, although low, not so low as to distort the labor market and drag down the wages paid to domestic farmworkers," Kinsella-Walsh wrote. "In October, the Trump administration delivered a huge pay cut to H-2A workers and, in doing so, undercut wages for farmworkers across America regardless of visa status. Trump’s changes include both a direct wage cut as well as new provisions allowing employers to charge housing fees of up to $3 per hour worked."
In his op-ed, Kinsella-Walsh noted that estimates of the pay that farmworkers will lose because of these changes range from $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion, or 10% to 12% of farmworkers’ annual wages. "Given these figures," he noted, "the losses suffered by farmworkers in Santa Barbara County alone — where I conduct research — could range from $126 million to $152 million annually, with subsequent decreases in spending and tax revenue reverberating through the region."
The rest of Kinsella-Walsh's editorial is available in the LA Times.