Trump Administration Betrays American Workers, Again

Today's announcement raises the H-2B visa cap to an all-time high

Washington, D.C., March 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that today's announcement by the Trump administration to increase guestworker visas is yet another betrayal of less-skilled American workers.

DHS revealed today that it would increase the number of H-2B visas for 2019 by 30,000, bringing the cap to a record 96,000. These visas are for less-skilled, non-agricultural jobs, like landscaping, cleaning, etc.

View the full analysis: https://cis.org/Huennekens/Latest-Trump-H2B-Increase-Again-Betrays-American-Workers

Preston Huennekens, a Research Associate at the Center and the author of the analysis, said, "The H-2B program is a raw deal for Americans, because H-2B visa holders get paid less than their American counterparts. In fact, H-2B visas prevent many of the neediest Americans from securing meaningful employment. For President Trump to allow this program to flourish is a betrayal of his promise to protect the American worker."

The Trump administration has repeatedly allowed the H-2B program to grow beyond its annual statutory cap of 66,000. In 2017 and 2018, the DHS secretary permitted “temporary” one-time increases of 15,000 more guestworkers. (Congress authorized the increases, but left the decision up to DHS so as to avoid political accountability.). The president could have prevented this simply by ordering the secretary to do nothing. In February 2019, Trump signed a spending bill that allows the DHS secretary to raise the H-2B cap to as high as 135,000. Not even under President Obama did H-2B rise to these levels.

Contact:
Marguerite Telford
Director of Communications, Center for Immigration Studies
(202) 466-8185
[email protected]

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