Congress Asks for H-2B Visas Cap to be Restored
WASHINGTON—The tourism industry in New Hampshire and Maine may be in trouble this summer if the government does not act swiftly to raise the ceiling on the number of temporary work visas for non-U.S. residents and New Hampshire and Maine’s senators have called on the Bush Administration to take action.
Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, both R-NH, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both R-ME, have joined other Senators in sponsoring legislation to increase the number of so-called H-2B visas and in urging the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to continue processing applications for those visas while the legislation moves through Congress.
The bureau, part of the Homeland Security Department, stopped accepting petitions on March 10, when the statutory ceiling of 66,000 for fiscal 2004 was reached. The bureau also announced that it would return all applications received after that date and would accept new applications only from those who plan to start work on or after Oct. 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.
The H-2B visa program allows temporary admission of foreign workers to perform non-agricultural work for which American workers cannot be found and the current limit on these visas is affecting many businesses in New Hampshire and Maine that heavily rely on foreign summer workers.
In a letter to President Bush Tuesday, the New Hampshire and Maine Senators, along with some of their Senate colleagues, said they were “deeply concerned” that legislation to address the problem won’t become law in time for the summer season unless the visa applications are processed in the meantime. Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., also signed the letter.
The four Senators are sponsors of a bill that would allow 106,000 H-2B visas for this fiscal year only. Several Democrats are co-sponsors of the legislation. The four have also signed on to a Republican-sponsored measure that would attempt to increase the number of H-2B visas this year without altering the 66,000 cap by allowing employers to rehire the same H-2B workers they hired in previous years.
“We were all surprised and not prepared when we read the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) press release on March 10,” said Allyson Cavaretta, marketing and sales director of the Meadowmere Resort in Ogunquit, on the coast of Maine. “We need the workers, and now we have no backup plan,”
The region has the lowest unemployment level in Maine, Cavaretta said in an interview, and the visa workers receive the same wages and bonuses American workers would get. “It is not cheap labor,” she said. “In contrast, these are jobs that Americans do not want to do, and therefore we need to look for workers overseas.”
Collins, in a statement, said, “Enabling Maine businesses to hire temporary, seasonal workers is crucial to our tourism industry and our state’s economy as a whole.”
Snowe agreed, saying that according to the Maine Department of Labor, the state’s hospitality industry will be paralyzed this summer if something isn’t done soon.
Companies in New Hampshire’s tourism business share those views. The seasonal worker program “is crucial to our success as a business and the success of our state economy,” J. Patrick McNally, human resources director of the Mt. Washington Hotel and Resort, said in a press release.
In a statement, Sununu warned that “without this short-term help, companies would be severely restricted during their busiest season.” An increase in the number of visas, he added, “will help to ensure these businesses have an adequate access to seasonal employees to keep operating and contributing to our state’s economy.”
