Sept. 1, 2025
By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Fast facts:
- Farm operations need to understand intricacies of state, federal labor laws
- Full webinar replay is available online
(Newsrooms: Download photo of Mencer)
(568 words)
ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE LAW – Arkansas attorney William Mencer presented the National Ag Law Center’s Aug. 20 webinar, discussing various labor law topics. (Photo courtesy William Mencer.)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For agriculture operations employing foreign labor under the H-2A visa program, keeping good records is paramount, said William Mencer, an ag law attorney and farmer from Lake Village.
Mencer, a fourth-generation farmer whose family grows rice, cotton, corn and soybeans, was the guest speaker for Wednesday’s National Agricultural Law Center webinar “Ag Labor Pointers & Pitfalls for Farming Operations.”
“We’ve participated in the H-2A program since the 1980s,” he said. “So, it’s something that we’ve always had to pay attention to in our operation. We’ve always leaned in on the H-2A program in order to keep the crops in the ground and get everything out every year.”
Demand for H-2A labor is high in the United States. The U.S. State Department issued 310,627 H-2A visas in 2023, up from 298,304 the previous year. The State Department forecasts annual H-2A visa applications to fall between 300,000 and 350,000 through the 2026 fiscal year.
Keeping records
“You’ve got to keep all of your records for at least three years,” Mencer said, noting that different laws and different agencies, such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “are going to have their own record-keeping thresholds and requirements.”
“It’s a good practice to keep your application records if you’re having to file for H-2A,” he said.
“For any operation, you need to keep good payroll records and pay stub records showing withholdings and things like that.”
In case allegations of violations result in an H-2A audit of the farm, “this is where good record-keeping comes in,” Mencer said. “If you can point to your records proving that you did something right, then maybe you can go back to the officer and say, no, actually, we did it correctly, and he’ll maybe take that charge off, or you can also try to get them to bring the fines down if you can prove that the violation wasn’t as egregious as they’re claiming that it was.”
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