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US Increases Number of H-2B Visas By 15,000 (arstechnica.com) 143

Posted by BeauHD from the irreparably-harmed dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President Donald Trump has said he's going to set more limits on the H-1B visa program, which allows tens of thousands of technology workers into the U.S. each year. But yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security moved to expand another type of visa, the H-2B, which allows lower-skilled workers in on a seasonal basis. The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday it is going to allow an additional 15,000 workers to come in under the H-2B visa category, which is typically used by U.S. businesses in industries like tourism, construction, and seafood processing. The program normally allows for 66,000 visas, split between the two halves of the year. That means the DHS increase, announced yesterday, represents an increase of more than 40 percent for the second half of 2017. Businesses can begin applying for the additional visas right away, as long as they attest under penalty of perjury that their business will "suffer irreparable harm" if it can't employ additional H-2B workers in 2017. The expansion is a temporary one, and it only applies to the current year.
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US Increases Number of H-2B Visas By 15,000 More

US Increases Number of H-2B Visas By 15,000

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  • In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trump (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hondo77 ( 324058 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @04:29PM (#54835225) Homepage
    From the article:

    The H-2B visa is used extensively by Trump's own businesses, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida. During the presidential campaign, Trump explained his use of H-2B visas by saying that "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

    • Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum (Score:5, Insightful)

      by enjar ( 249223 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @04:39PM (#54835301) Homepage

      The H-2B visa is used extensively by Trump's own businesses, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida. During the presidential campaign, Trump explained his use of H-2B visas by saying that "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

      "... at the wage and benefit levels we are offering"

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      NOT from the propaganda article
      http://www.lawnandlandscape.co... [lawnandlandscape.com]

      Due to a massive effort from NALP members and others in the H-2B Workforce Coalition, a bipartisan agreement on a bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30, 2017 contains limited H-2B cap relief. The House and Senate are expected to pass the bill this week and send it to President Trump for his signature before Friday. This agreement essentially ends the chance of a government shut down next week. The bill provides the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, the authority to raise the H-2B cap when he determines there is an economic need. It limits the total number of H-2B workers to that may enter the U.S. during fiscal 2017 to 129,547, the number of new and returning H-2B workers admitted to the U.S. in fiscal 2007.

    • Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum (Score:5, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @05:14PM (#54835445)

      "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

      That's not the whole story. Here are the con artist's own words [cnn.com] about using H-2B quotas at Mar-a-Lago:

      "It's almost impossible to get help," the Republican presidential candidate told CNN last month. "And part of the reason you can't get American people is they want full time jobs."

      Oh the horror. Americans wanting full-time jobs. But then, being the con artist, you don't suppose he's lying, do you? The next two paragraphs:

      That is news to Tom Veenstra. He is senior director of support services at the Palm Beach County CareerSource office. It's a free service that links qualified job candidates with employers. And during the past two years, the agency has placed more than 50,000 people in jobs in Palm Beach County. Veenstra says he has no doubt he could fill Mar-a-Lago with U.S. workers.

      "We have hundreds of qualified candidates for jobs like these," Veenstra told CNN. "That's what we do here. We help place local residents into jobs like those."

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by judoguy ( 534886 )

        "It's almost impossible to get help," the Republican presidential candidate told CNN last month. "And part of the reason you can't get American people is they want full time jobs."

        Oh the horror.

        Here in MN, the resorts are desperately trying to get more of these types of visa workers. These resorts are only open part of the year and can't give anyone full time jobs, American or foreign.

        They actively recruit around the world to try and get workers for a few months. These aren't supposed to be jobs that allow someone to live year round. Often the workers have lodging as part of the deal. Sort of like camp councilors who get paid and work and live in a resort for a few months. Foreign teens and young

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PJ6 ( 1151747 )
        Why isn't this, among Trump supporters, a major scandal?

        He's obviously kicking them (and all of us) right in the face. Not just with this, but in so many other ways as well.

        I just don't get it.

  • So this would let in the sort of people that work at hotels, casinos and resorts.

  • Rust Belt (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @04:32PM (#54835249) Homepage Journal

    If Trump were clever, he would allow unlimited H1B's in Rust Belt areas, with protections for local IT workers (assuming he won't support a free market, which is pretty much a given).

    Silicon Valley CEO's don't want to go anywhere but down their mountain to work, but the massive influx of workers into one area is making things miserable for non CxO workers because of the density/demand-driven prices.

    Want to see how badly the VC-fueled ventures really want to consume their H1B workers?

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @04:45PM (#54835325)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Well H1Bs ABUSE does that. The actual benefit of H1B workers to the U.S. is supposed to be their skills.

        But why are you even talking about H1Bs? The story is about Trump implementing a policy in direct conflict with his base. Surely at some point his base will figure out that they've been conned.

      • hooray for protectionism!

      • But I would argue that if you employ people, you actually get more out of them than what you pay them, otherwise it makes no sense. I assume taxes are being paid on the products and services the company produces, and income tax is being paid by the H1B, which should be substantial since they are skilled (not saying there aren't any horror stories). Given the H1B will most likely live in a high cost area, he will pay a lot for cost of living, so that goes back into the economy. You may argue that rent and su

    • Re:Rust Belt (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @04:51PM (#54835349) Homepage

      Setting aside the difficulty of giving such preferential treatment to a particular region, it won't really help. The problem isn't actually the contrast between the success of Silicon Valley vs. the implosion of the Rust Belt. The problem is actually more about the success of urban areas vs. the implosion of rural areas. And allowing more H1Bs in rural areas, aside from being difficult to enforce, would be ineffective.

      You can have technology startups in any number of cities, but you aren't likely to see many in rural areas. First, because the infrastructure might not be available to support it. Second, because educated tech workers increasingly want to live in more urban areas. Third, because there's a lot of demand for specialized workers, and a fair amount of turnover, which means you need a high population density, which runs entirely contrary to the idea of a "rural area".

      And that's not even dealing with the question of whether H1Bs are good for American workers.

      You can't just have the government enforce cheap labor in an area and expect that companies are going to flood in. Cheap labor is great, but a lot more goes into running a company than that.

      • Because Cleveland and Detroit are definitely what I would call rural areas

        • Well first, Detroit is just fucked in its own special way. Lots of things went wrong there, and it doesn't make sense to extrapolate.

          Second, Detroit does sort of serve to illustrate my point. From what I hear, the downtown area has been improving, and there have been some tech companies setting up shop there. However, things get more bleak as you move outward.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I work for a tech company that's out in the sticks. It's fine, all we really need in terms of infrastructure is roads and broadband.

        I'd live around here too, but in the UK rural housing is often very expensive because selfish assholes like to have a country home and a city home.

        • I don't know the exact situation, but I suspect that "the sticks" where you're talking about aren't as remote and rural as the parts of the US I have in mind. I'm talking about areas that are larger than the entire UK, without a major city anywhere in them. Like, you couldn't say, "I'd live around there too, but the housing is too expensive." You would *have to* live in a rural area if you worked there, because it might take hours to drive to anything larger than a small town. And the land is pretty che

    • B.S. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @05:28PM (#54835513)
      they'll go where the money is. Meanwhile pissing off rust belt employees is what cost Hilary the election (our demented politics means a few thousand people decide the outcome of presidential elections).
      • Yeah, you're right man. In any just system, rural voters should be ignored in favor of what big-city people want. After all, they're not deplorable and representation in government should be determined by moral judgements levied by people who clearly desire the annihilation of your culture.

    • If Trump were clever, he would allow unlimited H1B's in Rust Belt areas, with protections for local IT workers (assuming he won't support a free market, which is pretty much a given).

      Silicon Valley CEO's don't want to go anywhere but down their mountain to work, but the massive influx of workers into one area is making things miserable for non CxO workers because of the density/demand-driven prices.

      Want to see how badly the VC-fueled ventures really want to consume their H1B workers?

      That wouldn't do anything of the sort (not to mention the deflationary effect of excessive H1B usage applied to the entire economy).

      You simply can't pour resources in economically unsustainable locations. Knowledge economies rely on demographic agglomeration. It already happened massively in Japan and it is happening everywhere, including in poor, developing countries.

      America is no exception. It just so happen that its people haven't gotten the memo (even though the phenomenon started in the 80's and w

  • Just like the income tax was temporary.

    Face it, this is your new floor.

  • The amusement park went through thousands of hirings and firings. It was labour intensive work, but for a college student with no labor skills, the 80+ hour work weeks were a steady source of summer cash. For work like trash collection, it was difficult getting people, both domestic and foreign, to apply for those jobs. In some of these H2-B cases, these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

      See, while you are correct, those are the jobs most Americans are qualified for

    • and people will want the jobs. I don't get to import cheap drugs from Canada, do I? Why the hell do they get to import cheap labor?

    • In some of these H2-B cases, these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

      Then it is up to the employers to make the conditions more attractive to workers. .

    • Re:I worked at an amusement park through college (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sr180 ( 700526 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @10:51PM (#54836987) Journal

      > For work like trash collection, it was difficult getting people, both domestic and foreign, to apply for those jobs. In some of these H2-B cases, these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

      Because the free market has decided that the pay is too low. H2-B is just to keep wages low.

  • So, how long before they start classifying Helpdesk and System Admin positions as 'lower-skilled' positions that are eligible for the H-2B? As companies move to make Entry level, or level 1 positions more KB and 'script' based, it doesn't seem like a huge leap for some IT positions to become classified as H-2B level.

  • Tell me: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Tuesday July 18, 2017 @05:31PM (#54835529) Journal
    Tell me how importing 15,000 more foreign workers in any way shape or form helps "Make America Great Again"???

    • It makes the population greater (in number) than it was before. You must be new here!

      • They're not citizens or will become citizens, they're keeping American citizens from getting jobs and sending the money they earn overseas; your point is invalid. Next?

        • That sounds like Mexicans are stealing jobs, but they do not. US employers do not want to pay high salaries. Therefore, they want cheap labor, which they cannot get in the US, as normal US citizens want to be in played a living wage.

    • It doesn't. It "Makes Trump Richer", which was his entire plan for being president.
  • You get government benefits, and there is an H2B job available, you take that job or lose your benefits.

    It's the whole "get paid to not work" that makes this kind of BS possible. You wanna watch TV in an apartment instead of watch street traffic from a refrigerator box? Get a fucking job.
    Disabled? I'm sure there is an H2B job somewhere you can take.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by luis_a_espinal ( 1810296 )

      You get government benefits, and there is an H2B job available, you take that job or lose your benefits. It's the whole "get paid to not work" that makes this kind of BS possible. You wanna watch TV in an apartment instead of watch street traffic from a refrigerator box? Get a fucking job. Disabled? I'm sure there is an H2B job somewhere you can take.

      That's bullshit. That there are people who exploit loopholes in welfare, that does not imply the majority are. I mean, for fuck's sake, we have families of serving members of the military depending on food stamps to make ends meet.

      The majority of people who depend on some type of welfare are already fucking working. I mean, shit, Walmart has a program for his workers (full time and part time alike) on how to apply for welfare benefits to make ends meet. That should tell you something.

      There are people in

  • I think this answers the question. When corporation’s profit are put ahead of the people, that is not Populism. With age discrimination, the old engineers are getting replaced with foreign workers. In the 1980s and 1990 manufacturing was shipped overseas, today education has been shipped overseas by importing workers. I have multiple patents, knowledge in technology from VLSI design to machine learning, but working 8 to 6 is difficult for me due to my disability. Companies do not want technology gene
  • Who else is working for the lowest of the lowest wages at his resorts, hotels, and vineyards?
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