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Labor Secretary Sonderling Tours Merced County Farms and Manufacturers, Defends H-2A Wage Rule

October 20, 2026 · USDepartmentofLabor · 0:02:42

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What happened

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stopped at farms and manufacturing plants in California’s North Valley during a visit to Merced County, part of a two-day tour highlighting state leaders in manufacturing and agricultural technology, according to the ABC30 Action News report. The visit came as the Trump administration continued its push for more American-made goods, the report said.

Sonderling, who the report said was sworn in that month after succeeding Lori Chavez-DeRemer, framed the trip around American manufacturing done by American workers and keeping the workforce employers need. His visit arrived under pressure on his department: a court deadline loomed to rewrite the wage rules for the H-2A agricultural visa program after the department changed how it calculates the minimum hourly wage used in many program jobs, according to the report.

Sonderling said farm labor wages had risen sharply and disproportionately compared with other jobs, and that growers repeatedly told him they could not find workers because they could not afford them, as the report paraphrased his remarks. The United Farm Workers challenged the changes, arguing they could sharply cut wages and violate farmworkers’ rights; a federal judge in August found key parts of the new wage rules unlawful and ordered them replaced by December 30, and UFW President Teresa Romero accused the administration of fighting to keep money out of farmworkers’ pockets, according to the report.

Sonderling expressed confidence the department’s adjustments would hold, saying the department continues to defend the rule so American farmers and producers can hire locally, bring in workers if they need them, and pay appropriate wages, as he stated it. The report said the next status report on the new rule was due October 22.

Why it matters

The Merced visit puts the Labor Department’s H-2A wage rule — and the court-ordered December 30 deadline to replace the parts a federal judge struck down — at the center of the administration’s farm-labor policy, with the secretary defending the rule on the ground in farm country.

Scoreboard watch

The court-ordered deadline described in the report — replacement H-2A wage rules due by December 30, with a status report due October 22 — is a dated, checkable commitment for the scoreboard.

Sources: USDepartmentofLabor, “Secretary Keith Sonderling visits Merced County, CA”, 2026-10-20 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-20). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.