The U.S. Secretary of Labor visited a chile farm in Anthony, New Mexico recently to hear about the struggles and challenges that are facing agriculture in the region.
Acting Secretary of Labor, Keith Sonderling started his tour at the chile fields, where he met with Edward Ogaz, the owner of Seco Spice, a wholesale chile and vegetable company.
They admired the rows of chile in the fields as they talked about how labor-intensive chile picking is. Ogaz picked a chile from the plant and handed it to Sonderling.
Sonderling said the reason for his visit was to learn about the industry and to listen to the issues that are impacting farmers and workers. He said the Department of Labor is also interested in seeing how it can provide more workers and create policies that will benefit agriculture.
"Especially here in New Mexico everybody knows about New Mexico chiles and peppers and there's such a sense of pride too within their local communities. We want people to look at going into the agriculture field as a very high skilled and high paying career. And there's so many jobs available here," Sonderling said.
Most of these fields are picked by hand, and one of the top issues is finding workers who are reliable, explained Ogaz.
"This is the Chile Capital of the world, but it is the most labor-intensive capital of the world. Everything is so driven by labor," Ogaz said.
Seco Spice employs locals as often as they can he said, but often, the most reliable workers come from the H-2A program which allows U.S. employers to bring in migrant workers for temporary agriculture jobs.
"We know with H-2A program they're there every day, they're here to work and they want to work which makes a lot of our job easier. If the secretary can streamline the process and make it less cumbersome today and give it some flexibility then we have won all of us in the Ag business have won," Ogaz said.
The H-2A application process for employers is complicated. According to the U.S. department of Labor website, they have to prove their need for workers, get a Temporary Labor Certification, file a job order with the state workforce agency, among many other requirements.
Employers also have to provide housing and transportation for workers.
In New Mexico, there are currently 61 employers and 1,456 total recipients of the program according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services data.
"The Department of Labor with the H-2A program, we've made reforms to make it easier for growers to get lawful immigration to help with their seasonal needs here. Because the worst thing that could happen is great American crops like this can't get harvested because growers don't have the workers so were trying to make it as easy and affordable as they can," Sonderling said.
The Office of New Americans out of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions helps immigrants and refugees find work in the state; they also work with farmworker teams who utilize the H-2A program.
"So, we work closely with them to support them to kind of support them on some of the challenges especially as the rule changes have come out or as policy changes have come out on those programs." said Office of New Americans Director Leonardo Castañeda.
He said supporting employees with resources and making sure workers get treated fairly is key to providing a strong agriculture workforce.
"Agriculture is a huge part of New Mexico economy, history and culture. And immigrant workers have historically and to this day, are a huge part of that,"
Castañeda said.
Last month, U.S. Congressman Glenn Thompson from Pennsylvania introduced a bill that would be, according to a press release, " the first statutory reform to H-2A in 40 years."
The Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act of 2026 focuses on allowing year-round employment, cutting down costs for employers, and would make applications run smoother, and without delay from the Labor, Homeland Security and State departments.
After visiting the field, we drove to the chile plant where Seco Spice processes chile after it’s harvested. The chile goes through a cleaning process, is dehydrated and either left whole or milled into chile powder.
You’ll notice the strong smell of the chile way before entering the building. Hairnets and masks are worn inside. One worker saw the confused look on my face when I was handed the mask, and she said “everyone thinks they can handle the smell, but no one ever can”.
Secretary Sonderling was shown around the plant, which was lined with dozens of sacks of chile, organized in rows.
The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau said in a news release yesterday that changes to the H-2A program have generated an estimated $2.5 billion in savings for farmers and ranchers across the United States.
