Swordsmyth
07-17-2017, 06:08 PM
The administration insisted the visa boost is not incompatible with its “America first” pledge.
“We’re talking about American businesses that are at risk of suffering irreparable harm if they don’t get additional H-2B workers, so we do think that fits into the ‘America first’ focus of the administration,” Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan told reporters. “We’re asking these businesses to attest that if they do not get additional workers they will be harmed, so this does help with American businesses continuing to prosper.”
To receive the visas, businesses must attest they would suffer irreparable harm if they cannot bring in those workers. The government does not require them to submit evidence, but requires them to maintain documents that could act as evidence for three years. DHS also created a new tip line for people to report potential violations or abuse of the program.
The Trump administration’s decision to increase the number of H-2B visas, even just temporarily, shows how the president’s campaign talk is now colliding with powerful employers and his own party.
The H-2B program allows workers from places like Mexico and Guatemala to come to the U.S., work for a few months at a government-set prevailing wage, and then return to their home countries, only to repeat the process the following year. Large U.S. industries such as hospitality, seafood processing, and landscaping and forestry have come to rely on the relatively cheap labor supplied through the H-2B pipeline. Trump’s own businesses, including his resort Mar-a-Lago (http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/may/06/ted-cruz/donald-trump-attacked-bringing-hundreds-foreign-wo/?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313), have used the program.
But there’s been an outcry from employers in those industries saying they can’t find enough workers right now, as they’ve been squeezed by a dearth of visas and the low unemployment rate. Hoteliers in Maine, for instance, say they are barely functioning in what should be peak season. After appeals from employers in their home districts, representatives in Washington have been haranguing the administration to act.
This is yet another example of the administration and Congress failing to keep the Trump campaign promise of putting American workers first. Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA
The way Trump spoke on the campaign trail, one would expect him to limit the number of available H-2B visas, thereby forcing employers to raise wages until local, U.S.-born workers were willing to take the jobs. But now that he occupies the White House, Trump is apparently coming around to the employers’ point of view, which is that there aren’t enough American workers willing to take the jobs at wages employers can afford to pay.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administration-adds-more-foreign-161853553.html
“We’re talking about American businesses that are at risk of suffering irreparable harm if they don’t get additional H-2B workers, so we do think that fits into the ‘America first’ focus of the administration,” Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan told reporters. “We’re asking these businesses to attest that if they do not get additional workers they will be harmed, so this does help with American businesses continuing to prosper.”
To receive the visas, businesses must attest they would suffer irreparable harm if they cannot bring in those workers. The government does not require them to submit evidence, but requires them to maintain documents that could act as evidence for three years. DHS also created a new tip line for people to report potential violations or abuse of the program.
The Trump administration’s decision to increase the number of H-2B visas, even just temporarily, shows how the president’s campaign talk is now colliding with powerful employers and his own party.
The H-2B program allows workers from places like Mexico and Guatemala to come to the U.S., work for a few months at a government-set prevailing wage, and then return to their home countries, only to repeat the process the following year. Large U.S. industries such as hospitality, seafood processing, and landscaping and forestry have come to rely on the relatively cheap labor supplied through the H-2B pipeline. Trump’s own businesses, including his resort Mar-a-Lago (http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/may/06/ted-cruz/donald-trump-attacked-bringing-hundreds-foreign-wo/?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313), have used the program.
But there’s been an outcry from employers in those industries saying they can’t find enough workers right now, as they’ve been squeezed by a dearth of visas and the low unemployment rate. Hoteliers in Maine, for instance, say they are barely functioning in what should be peak season. After appeals from employers in their home districts, representatives in Washington have been haranguing the administration to act.
This is yet another example of the administration and Congress failing to keep the Trump campaign promise of putting American workers first. Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA
The way Trump spoke on the campaign trail, one would expect him to limit the number of available H-2B visas, thereby forcing employers to raise wages until local, U.S.-born workers were willing to take the jobs. But now that he occupies the White House, Trump is apparently coming around to the employers’ point of view, which is that there aren’t enough American workers willing to take the jobs at wages employers can afford to pay.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administration-adds-more-foreign-161853553.html