U.S. plans to raise number of visas for seasonal workers

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration announced an increase Tuesday in the number of temporary seasonal workers who will be allowed in the U.S. this year as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. would approve an additional 22,000 H2-B seasonal, nonagricultural worker visas on top of the annual limit of 66,000 set by Congress. It cited increased demand from employers, with the number of people seeking jobless benefits at the lowest point since the outbreak of covid-19.

The H2-B program has bipartisan support from Congress and from businesses across the nation, though immigration opponents portray it as taking jobs from Americans. The visas are used to fill jobs in landscaping, construction, hotels and restaurants as well as in seafood and meat processing plants and amusement parks.

In order to qualify for the program, employers must show they tried to recruit U.S. workers and then certify that they will suffer “irreparable harm” without foreign, seasonal workers, the department said in a statement announcing the supplemental increase.

Then-President Donald Trump last year authorized an additional 35,000 H-2B visas above the annual cap. But three months later, he halted foreign worker programs under an executive order to preserve U.S. jobs during the pandemic. Biden let that order expire.

The U.S. will set aside 6,000 visas for people from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, where long-standing economic and social problems deteriorated further because of the pandemic and two hurricanes that struck the region.

People from the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala made up nearly half of the migrants apprehended at the U.S.’ southwest border last month, part of an increase that has turned into an early test for Biden.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that setting aside visas for Central Americans reflects the administration’s goal of “expanding lawful pathways for opportunity in the United States” for people from the Northern Triangle countries.