TOPEKA – (November 15, 2023) - Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in urging the U.S. Department of Labor to drop a proposed rule change that would allow foreign agricultural workers in the United States to form unions - a right that is denied to U.S. citizen farmworkers.

"Once again, the Biden administration has placed the interests of foreign nationals over the interests of United States citizens," Kobach said. 

In a public comment letter to the labor department, the attorneys general argue that the proposed rule change is illegal, in part, because Congress did not authorize the Department of Labor to grant unionization rights to migrant workers.

"...Congress has already spoken on the issue," the public comment letter reads. "And it has excluded all farmworkers from collective bargaining protections. There is no ambiguity in that."

Kansas Attorney General Kobach submitted the letter. Attorneys general from the following states also signed on to the letter: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Read the letter here.