"With rent and the price of everything going up, we cannot save for the offseason or for emergencies," he said. "And nowadays, farmers are bringing in more H-2A guest workers and that is a big part of why local workers are losing hours and earnings."

Things are more precarious now, Santiágo said, speaking from a resource center for farmworkers run by Community to Community Development, a food sovereignty and immigration rights advocacy organization known as C2C, in Mount Vernon. For instance, if workers have to pick up their kids from school or if anyone at home is sick, they have to think hard before leaving work. They could either lose contracts the next season or be let go early as the harvest season tapers off.

Since H-2A workers are brought in without families, they don't have the same needs as domestic workers. Employers take advantage of this distinction to hire more H-2A workers, farmworker advocates say.

Santiágo emphasized this is not a fight between domestic and guest workers. "We are all workers, and so this is not us versus them — we know it is the companies pushing us out," she said.

Santiágo has considered leaving agricultural work, and once applied for a position at a day care center. Without the right certifications, she couldn't get a job.

"There's a lot you don't have access to without the right documents," Santiágo said.

Scott Dilley, public affairs director for Wafla, the largest H-2A employment agency in Washington, explained the H-2A program is meant to meet the needs of a labor-intensive industry that has changed significantly in the last two decades.

Decades ago, it was easy for farmers to post signs during harvest season and find labor. "That cycle of migration has really diminished as more workers are choosing to live in their communities rather than move around to follow the season for work," Dilley said. "And if you can't find workers, then you don't have a commodity to sell, so you have to get workers from somewhere."

He pointed to the shrinking agriculture industry in Washington and highlighted the challenges that local farmers face competing in an international open market.

"With so many other changes like overtime for farmworkers, how can farmers compete in this really international marketplace?" Dilley said. "That's the big question, especially as costs continue to go up."

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