{"id":21316,"date":"2019-04-01T15:40:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T19:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=21316"},"modified":"2019-04-01T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T19:40:39","slug":"dhs-approves-record-number-of-foreign-worker-visas-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/04\/01\/dhs-approves-record-number-of-foreign-worker-visas-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS Approves Record Number of Foreign Worker Visas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They\u2019re cheering at Martha\u2019s Vineyard and in the horse paddocks, but the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s decision to double the increase of H-2B foreign worker visas<\/a> isn\u2019t good news for America\u2019s working class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association,<\/a> lauded the move by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, saying it \u201cwill provide relief to horse trainers desperate to hire foreign workers for backstretch positions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out at Cape Cod<\/a>, where restaurateurs and other businesses thirst for more low-skilled foreign labor, some owners say they are \u201cworking seven days a week flipping burgers, busing tables and cleaning up cigarette butts to make up for the staffing shortage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTrump administration has repeatedly allowed the H-2B program to grow beyond its\nannual statutory cap of 66,000. In 2017 and 2018, Nielsen permitted \u201ctemporary\u201d\nincreases of 15,000 more guest workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongress authorized the increases, but left the decision up to DHS so as to avoid political accountability,\u201d noted Preston Huennekens, a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the federal\nspending bill signed by the president allowed DHS to raise the H-2B cap up to\n135,000 \u2013 a level never hit, even under President Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, wages have stagnated or declined in H-2B job classifications ranging from groundskeepers to coaches to carnival workers. The non-partisan Economic Policy Institute<\/a> reported that wages flat-lined or fell in all of the top 15 H-2B occupations. For workers in 10 of the top 15 H-2B fields, wages declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huennekens\u2019 CIS analysis\nconcludes that the H-2B program \u201cis a raw deal for Americans because H-2B visa\nholders get paid less than their American counterparts. In fact, H-2B visas\nprevent many of the neediest Americans from securing meaningful employment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, with 6.2 million Americans still unemployed<\/a>, and even more discouraged from even looking for work, Trump insists \u201cwe need people.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor President Trump to\nallow this program to flourish is a betrayal of his promise to protect the\nAmerican worker,\u201d Huennekens concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\nhimself has used low-skill visas to fill jobs at some of his properties. In\nOctober, his Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, requested H-2Bs for 78 cooks,\nhousekeepers and servers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He may call that the \u201cArt\nof the Deal,\u201d but is it worth cheering about? While not openly applauding\n(wouldn\u2019t be politically expedient), the silence from Capitol Hill Democrats\nspeaks volumes about their priorities, as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re cheering at Martha\u2019s Vineyard and in the horse paddocks, but the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s decision to double the increase of H-2B foreign worker visas isn\u2019t good news for America\u2019s working class. Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, lauded the move by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, saying it \u201cwill<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":17700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[856,1524,395,4366],"yst_prominent_words":[5105,5103,2140,5106,3101,2298,2181,2678,2671,5107,5104,4548,1942,1944,1946,2170,4005,2414,1937,3996],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21317,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21316\/revisions\/21317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21316"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}