Bloomberg News reports the Biden administration is planning to double the number of temporary work visas for those categories of jobs that involve hospitality, seafood processing, and landscaping since it is looking to address the seasonal shortfall of employers struggling to fill up the gap.
This move would let at least 64,716 nonagricultural H-2B visas aside from the presently 66,000 that are available every fiscal year, as stated by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday evening, thereby adding that it is taking these rapid measures to cater to the needs of the employers looking for additional seasonal workers. The fiscal year of the government started on October 1st.
Twenty thousand H-2B visas are being planned to be given to workers from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. According to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who stated that at a time of job growth is at a record high, the entire year allocation at the beginning of the fiscal year will ensure that businesses will be planning for the labor needs at the peak season.
It is also being envisaged that the Homeland Security and Labor Department will be boosting the protection of the workers to ensure that dishonest employers do not make the workers susceptible to working conditions that are unsafe to work in or offer too low a wage.
The announcement happened just before the Mayorkas and the other senior officials were to meet to discuss the security and related issues with Mexico’s Marcelo Ebrard, the foreign minister, and Rosa Icela Rodriguez, the security minister. Mexico has again requested the United States to provide more legal pathways for immigration.
As per Homeland Security, reports Bloomberg News, the statement that visas for the Haitians and the Central Americans will advance the administration’s pledge to expand legal pathways, seeing it as an alternative to irregular migration.
Domestically, the border security issue and the migrant influx from other areas aside from Central America that seeks asylum at the southern border regions have become a focus for repetitive attacks by the Republicans on the immigration policies of President Joe Biden and has also become a major issue for the midterm elections scheduled for November.
For a considerable period, business entities in the United States have relied upon employees across the globe who hold different types of visas and offer their services around the year. However, with the coronavirus pandemic, the flow has been disrupted, leaving many businesses shorthanded, thereby facing worker shortfall.
