Migrant labor
H-2B visas are needed for workers.
Anguished parents and crying toddlers may be the most severe consequence of Congress’ failure to fix a broken immigration system. But trouble in Texas’ seasonal summer industries is another.
If you like Gulf shrimp, landscaped lawns and staying in hotels on summer vacation, then you should worry that many of the migrant workers who come to Texas legally about this time every year have been caught up in the larger fight over immigration reform and denied the temporary visas they need to enter the United States.
Congress could solve the problem, but the Republican majority seems afraid to do anything that might appear at odds with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal border crossings.
Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy forcing family separations in no way resembles the ideal of America that made this country great. Neither is depriving American industries of the workers they need to survive.
In Texas shrimping alone, the lack of adequate labor cost the industry about $5 million a day last season, says Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association. It’s not that American businesses don’t want to hire American workers; it’s hard to keep them, Hance said. Ninety-six percent of Americans hired to work on shrimp boats quit before the end of their first monthlong trip.
Thousands of nonagricultural workers from Mexico and Central America are annually granted H-2B visas to work in the United States for a few months. Texas leads the nation, employing nearly 20,000 H-2B workers last year. Average pay is about $12 an hour.
The H-2B program began in 1987, with only 62 visas granted. In 1990, an annual limit of 66,000 H-2B visas was set, but it has been raised numerous times to meet demand; peaking at 129,547 H-2B visas granted in 2007.
That number dropped to only 44,947 H-2B visas in 2009. But with businesses continuing to struggle to find workers, the ceiling was raised to 84,267 visas in 2016 and last year 83,600 were issued.
But those increases were made by the Department of Homeland Security at the behest of Congress. DHS in May raised this year’s cap to 81,000 — still far short of the demand.
If Trump were the astute businessman he professes to be, he would guide Congress through a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s archaic immigration laws that included a fix for the annual shortage of H-2B visas.
It will take leadership to accomplish immigration reform that both strengthens border security and welcomes immigrants. If Congress ever finds its backbone again, that task won’t be too great.