Lawsuit claims Washington farm replaced local employees with foreign workers
Jun 20, 2025, 3:26 PM
A hop farm is pictured. (Photo: Allagash Brewing via Flickr Creative Commons)
(Photo: Allagash Brewing via Flickr Creative Commons)
The Trump administration has long argued that foreign workers are taking jobs from Americans, and now, Washington state’s attorney general (AG) is accusing a Yakima Valley farm of doing just that.
AG Nick Brown filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday, which claims Cornerstone Ranches fired local workers and replaced them with foreign H-2A workers. The H-2A visa program allows foreigners to temporarily work legally in the US, but only if employers can prove there’s a shortage of American workers.
Washington farm allegedly told local job seekers no work was available
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Brown claims the Toppenish-based apple and hops grower told local job seekers that no work was available, while replacing them with foreign workers, in violation of the Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit alleges Cornerstone also violated the law by failing to reveal the pay rate and hours of H-2A contract jobs.
“The H-2A program was never intended to be a back-door source of labor when there are qualified workers here in Washington eager to take on jobs, but that’s exactly how Cornerstone has used it,” Brown said.
The Washington State Office of the Attorney General said 91% of the work performed during the fall harvest of 2021 was done by local employees. Within two years, the rate had shrunk to 59% while the percentage of foreign workers more than doubled.
Female workers have been particularly hard hit by Cornerstone’s alleged employment practices.
In a statement, Brown’s office said local employees were held to “unfair productivity standards and other requirements not applied to H-2A workers.” When you compare the average weekly hours worked by females between June of 2022 and April of 2023, with the same time period the following year, the rate dropped 39%.
Brown said that violates the Washington Law Against Discrimination.
KIRO Newsradio and MyNorthwest have reached out to Cornerstone Ranches for comment.
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