The administration told the justices that enforcing seasonal farmworker visa terms in agency proceedings is a long-recognized power over immigration; the grower and several justices questioned whether penalties can be imposed without a federal court.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday took up a question that will shape how the federal government polices one of California’s most important farm labor programs: whether the Department of Labor may order employers to pay penalties and back wages for violating the terms of the H-2A seasonal visa program through its own administrative judges, or whether it must go to federal court.
The case, Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, LLC (No. 25-966), arises from a New Jersey farm. An agency proceeding ordered Sun Valley Orchards to pay more than $500,000 in penalties and back wages for violations of the visa program, Bloomberg Law reported. In July 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit set that order aside, holding that under the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, the claims resembled a breach-of-contract suit and had to be heard by a federal judge and jury.
The government’s case
The Labor Department, led by Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is the petitioner, and the Trump administration’s lawyers asked the court to restore the agency’s enforcement power. The justices agreed to decide two questions: whether Article III of the Constitution bars the department from adjudicating these claims, and whether the H-2A statute, 8 U.S.C. §1188(g)(2), authorizes it to.
Arguing for the government, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris said employers who use H-2A workers make binding promises meant to protect American workers from being undercut by foreign labor, and that enforcing those promises falls within the “public rights” that Congress may assign to executive agencies, especially in immigration. She relied on the court’s 1909 decision in Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Stranahan, which upheld administrative fines on shipping companies.
She warned against a broad ruling. Limiting executive adjudication to matters at the border “would be catastrophic,” Ms. Harris said, given the volume of immigration cases; a holding that civil penalties across the board can be imposed only in court would be the “nuclear option.” “It would be a big deal for the government to lose but an even bigger deal would be to have a mess,” she said.
Skepticism from the bench
Several justices appeared doubtful, according to Bloomberg Law. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. called Oceanic Steam “significantly different,” saying the broad authority the executive has over admitting immigrants does not obviously extend to workers who have been in the country for months. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh cited the court’s 1987 decision in Tull v. United States as a “fairly definitive statement” that civil penalties belong in courts of law. Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that removing an employer from the program would be a “clear way” to regulate it.
The divisions were not purely ideological. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. questioned the Third Circuit’s contract analogy, noting that the workers had no say over the terms, and called the grower’s proposed test a “hodgepodge.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the arrangement “the most unusual employment contract I’ve ever seen,” and Justice Elena Kagan noted that Jarkesy itself identified immigration as an area where agency adjudication is allowed. Robert E. Johnson of the Institute for Justice, arguing for Sun Valley Orchards, said Oceanic Steam was the high-water mark for administrative fines in immigration law.
What it could mean for California
California farms rely heavily on the program. Lori J. Johnson, legal director of Farmworker Justice, which joined a Public Citizen brief supporting the government, said California is among the largest H-2A states, with more than 35,000 positions certified last year, and that the state’s farmworkers would lose most federal wage-and-hour oversight if the department loses. She said H-2A workers are uniquely vulnerable because they have no private right of action and are excluded from the main federal farmworker protection law, and she pointed to a 2024 Government Accountability Office finding of violations in 84 percent of H-2A investigations.
“It is just not realistic for the DOL to file a lawsuit every time it wishes to enforce commitments that the H-2A employer opted to enter into,” Ms. Johnson said in an email. “We will be watching closely for a decision.”
The Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed a brief on the other side, argued that agency adjudication must be justified claim by claim. “During Tuesday’s argument, there were several justices who were concerned about claims for civil fines being adjudicated outside Article III courts,” Josh Robbins, a foundation attorney, said in an emailed response. “But this case presents a close question given the general agreement among the justices that immigration matters, to one extent or another, can be handled by the Executive Branch. The case will likely turn on how far the justices consider the category of immigration matters to extend.”
If the department loses, Mr. Robbins said, “civil penalty cases similar to this one could not proceed within the Department’s internal adjudication process.” The agency would have to rely on existing authority to sue in federal court or ask Congress for it, he said, and the ruling would be “a signal to Congress that it should seriously reexamine its decision to allow administrative agencies to impose serious penalties without independent Article III judges.”
For California growers, the stakes run in both directions: a ruling for Sun Valley would give employers a jury and a federal judge before penalties are imposed, while a ruling for the government would preserve the faster in-house process the department has used for years. The California Farm Bureau did not respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday. A decision is expected by the end of June.
Anjali Venkatram covers national news and the federal policies, court rulings and trends that reach California, for National News. More from Anjali Venkatram
