The summer hospitality industry will try to win Senate passage this week of a bill to raise the visa cap for seasonal foreign workers after it was blocked last week by lawmakers concerned about U.S. unemployment and higher immigration.
Backers say the bill is necessary because the Department of Homeland Security is enforcing the cap of 66,000 visas this fiscal year for the first time, leaving summer vacation industries tens of thousands of workers short.
“Nobody expected this to happen. This hit everybody like a ton of bricks,” said Hank Lavery, executive vice president of Century Pool Management in Alexandria.
The workers fill a variety of positions, such as those at seashore resort restaurants and hotels, on Gulf of Mexico shrimp boats and in the Alaskan salmon industry. These jobs often run longer than students’ summer vacations, said Mr. Lavery, who created the Web site www.raisethecap.org to push for the bill.
“The jobs these people are taking — employers have worked to find Americans that want the jobs. They advertised, they followed all the rules, they offered bonuses. They follow the wages set by the government, which are usually pretty high, and they still can’t find Americans to take these jobs,” Mr. Lavery said. “Now this is to the point where if Congress doesn’t act — Congress, the president — they’re all going to blamed for destroying the summer.”
But Rosemary Jenks, a lobbyist for NumbersUSA, which supports immigration restrictions, said given the unemployment rates, the issue could blow up.
“Americans certainly make the connection between jobs and the flooding of the labor market with foreign workers,” she said.
She also said unemployment statistics show there are Americans who can hold those jobs, pointing to the 9 percent unemployment rate among the 12 million Americans without a high school diploma, and an unemployment rate of 40 percent among black men of working age.
The seasonal nonagriculture-worker program is also under fire after having exceeded its cap of allowable visas last year. Some lawmakers have called for a review.
In 1990, Congress set the 66,000 cap under the H-2B visa program during a fiscal year. Before bringing in a foreign worker, an employer must prove he has found no takers among American job seekers; that the slot is not a permanent position; and that hiring a foreigner won’t lower wages paid to a U.S. worker in the same field.
In 2003, though, the government exceeded the cap by 13,000 visas, and in the face of criticism, immigration officials clamped down. On March 9, they announced the cap had been reached for the fiscal year, which ends in September.
Democrat-sponsored bills are pending in both the House and Senate to raise the cap by 40,000 visas for this fiscal year.
Republican-sponsored bills are pending in both chambers to change the way some workers count toward the cap. The Senate bill, for example, would allow employers to hire the same H-2B workers from previous years without counting them toward the cap.
One Republican Senate aide said that approach was chosen because it avoids the issue of raising immigration caps in the midst of the ongoing debate over illegal immigration.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican, said it strikes the right balance.
“The number of actual workers admitted will be dictated by the strength of the economy, and not by a random number that resulted from political compromise,” said Mr. Hatch, adding that it also benefits those previous workers “who have complied with the law and returned to their home countries at the end of the season.”
Mr. Lavery said the issue is an unlikely battleground for immigration reform because the workers are temporary. The Republican aide said the H-2B program has a good record of participants returning home rather than remaining illegally.
Without an increase in the cap, employers say the choice is between hiring illegal immigrants or not doing business.
Mr. Lavery said on his Web site this weekend that House and Senate sponsors are preparing a letter asking President Bush to begin processing H-2B petitions while the legislation is pending, so that if Congress passes a bill the workers can be ready in time for the summer season.
Several Senate aides said there are multiple “holds” on the bill, meaning several senators would try to block it from passing on unanimous voice vote — the only way for the measure to pass quickly.
The aides said Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, is one of those senators with a hold on the bill. His spokesman, Michael Brumas, would not comment on the subject.
Some lawmakers are taking a stand against the program, including Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.
“With an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, regardless of whether it’s seasonal workers or not, we shouldn’t be importing jobs,” said Carlos Espinosa, a spokesman for Mr. Tancredo.
For now, it’s unlikely Mr. Tancredo and his House colleagues will face the issue soon. Although two bills have been introduced in the House, key lawmakers there say they are waiting for the Senate to act.
“The Senate’s taking the lead on this issue,” said Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee.
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