April 23 , 2008

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Over 300 Attend House Hearing on Seasonal Foreign Workers;
H-1B Visa Applications Closed
On April 16, more than 300 small and seasonal business owners and employees attended a House Subcommittee on Immigration hearing on the guest worker visa program, known as H-2B. The program allows 66,000 foreign, unskilled, non-agricultural workers to be hired for seasonal jobs in the U.S. each year. A provision that allows returning workers not to count against this limit expired on September 30, 2007, and Congress has not been able to renew it. The hearing could be a step toward renewal.

Speaking at the hearing were Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI), sponsor of the bill to renew the returning worker exemption; George Miller (D-PA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), and Brian Bilbray (R-CA), and both pro- and anti-H-2B program advocates. Representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center for Immigration Studies (which has fought laws that allow foreign nationals to work or live in the U.S.), and the Economic Policy Institute (a think tank aligned with the AFL-CIO) appeared in opposition to the program. Speaking on behalf of the program were longtime guest worker employers Dan Musser of The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, MI, and Bill Zammer of Cape Cod Restaurants, Cape Cod, MA. Click here to view the complete testimony.

Next Steps to Take
The Official Record of the Hearing will be left open for five “legislative days” after the Hearing. Members of Congress still have an opportunity to submit their Statements for the Record if they have not already done so. Interested APSP members should contact their Member of Congress and ask:
1.   Have you submitted a statement the House Immigration Subcommittee in support of the H-2B program and the Returning Worker Exemption? If not, it is not too late—please do so.
2.   If you have already submitted a statement, please send a copy of it to hlavery@savesmallbusiness.org.

For more information contact APSP member Hank Lavery, President of Save Small Business.

In a related story, the rush by U.S. companies to apply for H-1B visas for next year officially ended one day after it began. After opening the application process April 4, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Tuesday, April 8, that it had received 150,000 applications by Monday afternoon for the 66,000 available foreign worker permits for skilled professionals. As a result of the overwhelming number of applications and the limited number of visas available, USCIS would accept no more petitions. The thousands of foreign professionals who have applied for these sought-after visas will be chosen by lottery.

The National Association of Manufacturers continues to urge Congress to raise the cap on H-1B visas to allow American manufacturers to fill skilled worker positions now vacant. For details, contact Heath Weems, 202.637.3133.

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