WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge turned down a request to stop the Bush administration from instituting new rules that would make it easier for farmers to bring in foreign work crews to harvest their spring crops.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina refused the request from the United Farm Workers union and the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project to stop the Labor Department from instituting new H2-A visa rules.

H2-A visas are used by the agriculture industry to hire temporary farm workers.

The groups had argued that the Bush administration's overhaul of the country's agricultural worker program would lower wages in the fields, erode labor protections and make it easier for contractors to bypass hiring legal U.S. workers.

Urbina said they presented too little evidence that their members would “suffer immediate decreased wages, increased transportation costs or loss of employment.”

The new rules go into effect Jan 16^th 2009, only days before the Bush administration leaves office.