{"id":22370,"date":"2020-01-06T15:21:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T20:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22370"},"modified":"2020-01-06T15:22:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T20:22:48","slug":"dhs-low-skill-foreign-workers-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/01\/06\/dhs-low-skill-foreign-workers-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Waves Through More Low-Skill Work Visas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The carnival industry<\/a>, among others, is upset that Nancy Pelosi & Co. didn\u2019t adopt a requirement doubling the number of low-skill work visas in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthe show will most certainly go on. Dodging a straight-up vote to increase,\nCongress retained language authorizing the Department of Homeland Security\n(DHS) to double the cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the Department of Labor is doing its bit to recruit H-2B foreign laborers by hosting a government-administered job website<\/a>. Employers seeking landscapers, construction crews, waitresses, forestry workers and even circus barkers (to name just a few) no longer need to place help-wanted ads in the communities they serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of\nthis is good news for America\u2019s blue-collar workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn passing the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 1865<\/a>). Congress showed contempt for the most vulnerable American workers,\u201d scolded Numbers USA<\/a>, an immigration enforcement group. \u201cSome 50 million working-age Americans are still outside the labor force and need to be brought in. Employers should recruit them, rather than importing cheap foreign labor through an exploited visa program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By retaining a provision inserted by then-House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2017, HR 1865 authorizes DHS to approve another 69,000 H-2B work permits once companies grab the first 69,000 visas. The Ryan rule essentially invites business groups and legislators to pressure DHS executives in closed-door meetings for extra H-2Bs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2019, DHS officials released roughly 30,000 extra H-2Bs amid this backroom pressure \u2014 with opposite pressure from the White House to follow the president\u2019s Inauguration Day demand to \u2018Hire American.\u2019 In 2020, the H-2B population in the United States is likely to climb above 100,000,\u201d Breitbart News<\/a> reported last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though\n100,000 is smaller than the cadre of H-1B (\u201cskilled\u201d) visa holders admitted\ninto the U.S. annually, the H-2B program presents its share of problems. By\nenabling employers to avoid available U.S. workers, the H-2B program depresses\nopportunities for American workers with low education and skill levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

H-2B jobs may be menial, but wages can be higher<\/a> than the national minimum hourly rate of $7.25. The ability of employers to import H-2B workers at will artificially depresses pay scales and discourages Americans from seeking these positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, many H-2B jobs are in states where qualified workers are available, and do not actually have labor shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers can also do more encourage Americans to jump into the labor pool. In Colorado, which ranks just behind Texas and Florida for H-2B visas, one newspaper has suggested a work requirement for able-bodied adults on Medicaid<\/a>, who make up 45 percent of Medicaid recipients in that state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the biggest drawbacks to H-2B and other foreign-labor schemes are the workers who don\u2019t go home when their temporary visas expire. While surges of migrants across our southern border grab the headlines, visa overstays<\/a> represent a significant portion of illegal aliens who settle in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of\nhanding out evermore work permits to foreigners, the federal government needs\nto get a handle on their comings and goings. That\u2019s a job DHS must do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The carnival industry, among others, is upset that Nancy Pelosi & Co. didn\u2019t adopt a requirement doubling the number of low-skill work visas in 2020. But the show will most certainly go on. Dodging a straight-up vote to increase, Congress retained language authorizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to double the cap. In the<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12958,"comment_status":"closed","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":[261,1524,986,395],"yst_prominent_words":[7447,1938,2169,2140,2298,2187,7445,2678,7449,2671,2411,7446,1944,1945,1933,2172,2170,2128,4220,1937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370"}],"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=22370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22371,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22370\/revisions\/22371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22370"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}