Raising the Visa Cap

Forestry companies and hotels and restaurants are already bracing for a labor shortage next summer because the federal government has refused to raise the limit on the number of visas that can be offered to foreign workers. The hospitality and forestry industry relies upon foreign workers who qualify for H2B visas. Last year, the government, for the first time, enforced an existing cap on the number of such visas that would be awarded. That left Maine businesses without needed workers.

With another season looming, many businesses have applied early, hoping to secure enough visas before the 66,000 cap is reached. This is prudent, but congressional action to raise the cap would be better.

Last month, lawmakers agreed to a provision allowing high-tech businesses an additional 20,000 H1B visas because the 65,000 slots previously allocated were snatched up the first day applications were accepted. A similar effort to raise the H2B visa limit, sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, failed.

Another approach, from Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, that would have allowed any seasonal worker who was an H2B visa holder during any one of the past two fiscal years to not be counted toward the 66,000 cap, was also unsuccessful. A third sensible proposal to reclassify forestry workers from H2B to H2A visas, which covers agricultural workers and does not have a cap, also failed. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins supported all three provisions.

Because the cap was enforced this year, some stores, restaurants and hotels were short-staffed. Some mills temporarily shut down because wood was slow to come out of the forest.

A key opponent of such measures, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, chairman of the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, has raised valid concerns about the nation’s immigration system and its oversight. The senator “has serious concerns about the ineffectiveness of our immigration system and he wants to see it improved. … The senator believes we should work for a comprehensive reform of our immigration system so that it furthers our national interest and encourages compliance with the rule of law.”

While reform of our immigration system is needed, such an overhaul will take time. Businesses in Maine, and other states, that rely on temporary foreign workers to do seasonal work cannot wait until the reform is done. They needed workers during the tourist season and the wood-cutting season. And they need these workers every year.

A temporary increase in the cap or allowing workers who have worked in Maine in the past to return will avoid business disruptions without jeopardizing immigration reform efforts.