Harris Issues Statement on H-2B Visa Access for Upcoming Season
WASHINGTON, DC: Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) today issued a statement after learning that the vast majority of crab houses on the Eastern Shore are unlikely to receive the H-2B non-immigrant guest workers they need to maintain peak operations during the upcoming season due to the inadequate yearly cap and lottery system for allocating those visas. For the period beginning April 1st and ending September 30th, the number of guest worker visas applied for stands at over 136,000 – with only 33,000 available. This is grossly inadequate given the proven demand.
Congressman Harris issued the following statement:
"In order to support the iconic crab houses of Maryland's Eastern Shore and other seasonal businesses across the country, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden Administration must immediately release the additional H-2B visas for the second half of Fiscal Year 2022 authorized under the Harris/Pingree amendment. Additionally, Congress must continue to work to pass a long-term, bipartisan solution to this chronic shortage of these desperately needed guest worker visas as I did with Senator Mikulski years ago. Without access to these visas, many American-owned seasonal businesses facing severe labor shortages will be forced to scale back or shutter their operations entirely, further driving up prices for goods and services, killing good paying permanent American jobs, and harming local economies. I will continue to work in a bipartisan fashion with my colleagues to solve this problem."
The H-2B guest worker program provides access to seasonal temporary labor to businesses that can prove they were unable to hire willing and qualified American workers in certain non-agricultural seasonal roles. The program is subject to an annual cap of 66,000 visas evenly divided between the first and second half of each fiscal year: October – March and April – September. Under the Harris/Pingree amendment to the annual Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of Labor, is authorized to release additional visas to meet the needs of seasonal businesses if he finds there are not sufficient American workers willing, qualified, and able to fill these positions. For the first half of Fiscal Year 2022 (ending March 31st, 2022), DHS has announced they will release an additional 20,000 visas above the cap, which will not help many of the seasonal industries on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
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