An agriculture crisis is exploding as farmers protest the administrative state’s power of judge, jury, and executioner.
A South Carolina farm family faces bankruptcy and almost $1 million in federal fines, with no proof of wrongdoing beyond the closed walls of a single agency.
“How can this happen in America?” ask Antonio and Esmeralda Sandoval. “We are presumed guilty and not allowed a jury or outside judge. In our wildest dreams, we never imagined this could be legal.”
Remarkably, it’s not legal, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, yet the Sandovals and other farm families are locked in a bureaucratic vise with no checks or balances.
“Injustice and isolation. Those words only describe part of what our own government is doing to us,” Esmeralda Sandoval says. “We’re supposed to shut up and not ask for a jury of our peers while the government pushes us into bankruptcy and takes what we’ve built for 30 years?”
$1-Million Surprise
In upstate South Carolina, on 400 acres of hilly ground in Spartanburg County, the Sandoval family grows tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and bell peppers at Del Valle Fresh, a vegetable operation bootstrapped over three decades.
“We believe in old-school farm values of gratitude and responsibility,” Esmeralda says. “That’s how we raised our kids. Two older sons serve in the Marine Corps, and my daughter is currently a commanding officer in the Navy aboard the Arlington. My youngest son, 17, was admitted to an apprentice program in Virginia, to build Navy ships. We work and we serve. We’re not criminals and we don’t mistreat people.”
In a typical year, Del Valle employs up to 100 seasonal employees obtained from the Department of Labor’s (DOL) H-2A foreign worker program. Del Valle’s H-2A employees, sourced from Mexico, typically work at the operation in 6 to 10-month stints.
In May 2021, during the heart of the Covid era, DOL audited Del Valle for the stretch between December 10, 2019 to December 5, 2021.
“It all started when they came out in multiple vehicles, maybe four cars with six to seven people, and flashed their DOL badges,” Esmeralda says. “Honestly, at the time, I thought they were from the FBI. We didn’t hear back from them for almost a year-and-a-half. I thought, ‘They’ll make us do some of the normal regulatory adjustments, but nothing major.’”
Instead, 15 months later, Sandoval received a DOL letter and the surprise of her life. “They said we owed them almost $1 million. The public sees that giant number and thinks we must have done terrible things, otherwise we wouldn’t get the penalty. No. We didn’t abuse anyone.”
According to DOL, Del Valle owed $368,123.58 in unpaid wages to 102 workers and was liable for civil monetary penalties to the tune of $511,904.70. The total was $880,028.28, and “due and payable within 30 days.”
The Same Water Cooler
“We never mistreated H-2A workers,” Sandoval emphasizes. “Never.”
“We’re accused of everything from holding back hours to not putting the correct safety posters on our farm walls to fraudulent paperwork,” she says. “We were in the middle of crazy Covid restrictions, and as a family, we were in the middle of losing four loved ones—Antonio’s mother, my grandparents, and our grandbaby. I can’t properly describe the pressure from DOL during all of that.”
Once charged by DOL, the Sandovals were stuck behind DOL walls. The federal government’s departments, agencies, and sub-agencies operate internal courts separate from independent scrutiny. Therefore, the Sandovals faced rulemaking, enforcement, investigation, trial, and judgement—all by DOL personnel. Figuratively, they were subject to government employees who drank at the same water cooler.
The Sandovals requested a jury trial. Denied. On March 10, 2025, DOL Judge Paul Almanza declared that DOL “must adjudicate this matter in accordance with the H-2A regulations, which do not provide for a jury trial.”
On May 2, 2025, the Sandovals sued DOL. “We’re paying out of pocket to defend our farm and our name after being falsely charged with mistreating our workers,” Esmeralda explains. “It’s demoralizing to be charged with abuse when our workers return year after year to help us. It’s straightforward at this point. If we lose, we’ll have to pull the plug on our farm and 30 years of our lives. What they’re doing is unjust and it’s not even supposed to be legal.”
The U.S. Supreme Court agrees with Sandoval.
Bureaucratic Hamster Wheel
In a historic 2024 case, SEC v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court ruled that citizens are entitled to a jury trial when facing with civil penalties imposed by administrative law judges at federal departments and agencies.
However, DOL has continued with in-house adjudication. In 2024, according to Institute for Justice, DOL collected $4.9 million in back wages and imposed $5.8 million in penalties on agricultural employers.
On a parallel track with Del Valle in South Carolina, a Kentucky farm couple faces $70,000 in H-2A related fines. David and Debbie Ross, who
grow corn and tobacco in the northern Kentucky hills of Harrison County, at Triple R Farms, are demanding a jury trial.
“It’s sickening what the government can get away with,” Debbie says. “We’ve done nothing wrong and we want a jury of our peers to hear the evidence. All of it.”
The Rosses, like the Sandovals, are suing DOL, and their case carries heavyweight ramifications for agriculture and beyond. “People might think there’s no way something this unjust happens in America, but it does,” Debbie adds. “It’s happening on our farm to us.’”
In New Jersey, brothers Joe and Russell Marino, owners of Sun Valley Orchards, challenged DOL (Sun Valley v. DOL) after a nine-year, bureaucratic grind centered on an H-2A paperwork violation and $500,000-plus in fines. In July 2025, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled DOL violated the Constitution and that charges against the Marinos had to be brought in an independent court. DOL has appealed the ruling and is asking the Supreme Court to hear the case.
“People need to know our whole story because this is how government agencies operate,” said Joe Marino, after his initial court victory. “The public will be sickened to find out what DOL did. I don’t want this to ever, ever happen to another farmer or small business owner or American. The time for change is right now. It has to be now.”
Yet, the Marino brothers, along with David and Debbie Ross, and Antonio and Esmeralda Sandoval, are stuck on a bureaucratic hamster wheel.
“We feel terribly alone,” Esmeralda says. “Imagine someone with government power trapping you inside their federal office and then demanding $1 million to get out. No. We want a fair trial in front of a jury, just like the Constitution says.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
