Dan's Papers - May 30, 2008 - Summer Workers Get Cold Shoulder

With debate now underway in the U.S. Senate concerning President Bush's Iraq War Supplemental Appropriations Bill, local landscaping companies, hotels and other seasonal businesses across the East End will have to watch and wait to see if they'll be able to welcome back the dozens of foreign laborers currently unable to legally cross into the U.S.

It's not the President's war budget request that affects those workers, but the exemptions attached to the bill by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), that, if approved, could return those employees to the jobs they've held in the past.

The exemptions concern the nation's current visa program - designated H-2B - which, for many years, has capped the amount of non-citizen workers legally allowed to work in our country at 62,000. That limit had never been an issue until 2005, when a large increase in interest first brought the allotment of visas to its ceiling. Since then, the cap has been reached every year, with many foreign workers also vying for seasonal winter jobs, thereby using up all permits as early as January 2 each year. The end result, employers who count on those laborers during the summer months find themselves with few or no outside workers.

Naturally, this directly affects the East End, as manual and menial labor jobs key to hotels, restaurants, landscaping companies and other businesses are left unfilled. The visa program also requires employers to pay taxes and insurance for its foreign workers and mandates that workers return to their native countries in the off-season. But since the jump in applicants three years ago, many summer staffers have lost their visas to counterparts who pursued cold-weather work first.

Local officials here support the Mikulski proposal, which would allow foreign workers who have previously come to the United States for seasonal jobs to receive special work visas beyond the 62,000 appropriated. Dan's Papers spoke with the honorable Jay Schneiderman, legislator for the Second Legislative District of Suffolk County, on the subject:

The H-2B visa is an excellent program that allows workers to enter this country legally with specified employers. It also ensures that no one from the United States was available to fill the positions.

I support this program.

This program is absolutely critical because of the seasonal surge in job availability. It is very difficult to find year-round residents to fill these temporary positions. Therefore, we need to reach outside our community. The H-2B visa program has been very successful with attracting a reliable workforce. After the employees complete seasonal work, they return to their native countries and don't burden local schools or towns for additional services.

Do you feel there are faults in the program? Would you change or append it in any way?

The fault is that the quota requirements are set too low and directly hurt the program. Not enough employees are allowed in to meet the current demands of seasonal positions. The program needs to be expanded, not contracted.

The cap of 62,000 is far too low. It only fuels the temptation to hire undocumented laborers so business can survive. That is the wrong direction.

It has yet to be approved by Congress. If this fails to pass, what would be the direct effect to East End business and industry?

Congress already has been too slow to respond, leaving the East End tourist industry without the workforce it needs for the summer. Businesses are already cutting back on hours because of labor shortages.

(Note: Since this conversation with Schneiderman, the House of Representatives has approved a bill containing the H-2B amendment, but the add-on still awaits Senate, White House and committee decisions.)

Washington has turned its back on this issue and I find it disgraceful that the program has been derailed - especially with the current state of our economy. Too many of our local businesses are suffering.

There is great concern among supporters of the special work visa exemption on H-2B that some in the Senate who, while not against the change, may fight it, as many topics involving foreign labor and immigration are caustic in nature. But this amendment is only one of many that are attached to the bill in question (other add-ons include the GI Bill, extending unemployment benefits, moneys for education and the tracking of child predators, among others), and while President Bush has expressed the likelihood that he will veto the add-ons, it may be safe from floor filibustering. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV.) brought up the addenda by dividing the bill into components of non-war appropriations and Iraq funding and policy restrictions, looking to get a vote on the additions first. The hope is that the White House and GOP conservatives will pass it in order to prevent the Democratic-led Senate from following a Bush veto with complications to future budget plans for the war in Iraq.

If adopted by a majority vote of the full Senate, the accepted add-ons will be presented to the House of Representatives. The House has already approved its own version of the appropriations bill last week - which does contain the amendment to allow those foreign laborers who had obtained visas in the past to return. If the Senate version goes through, a committee of congresspeople and senators will then negotiate a bill that compromises on the differences between the two versions. It then must be ultimately - and finally - approved by both houses.

The timetable slated for a final approval isn't set, but U.S. Representative Tim Bishop (D-NY 1st) has stated in the press that he expects the bill to be put up for a vote in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, East End businesses - as well as many thousands of foreign laborers - losing both money and time, have no choice but to wait until the government makes its final decision.