US Increases Number of H-2B Visas By 15,000 (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President Donald Trump has said he's going to set more limits on the H-1B visa program, which allows tens of thousands of technology workers into the U.S. each year. But yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security moved to expand another type of visa, the H-2B, which allows lower-skilled workers in on a seasonal basis. The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday it is going to allow an additional 15,000 workers to come in under the H-2B visa category, which is typically used by U.S. businesses in industries like tourism, construction, and seafood processing. The program normally allows for 66,000 visas, split between the two halves of the year. That means the DHS increase, announced yesterday, represents an increase of more than 40 percent for the second half of 2017. Businesses can begin applying for the additional visas right away, as long as they attest under penalty of perjury that their business will "suffer irreparable harm" if it can't employ additional H-2B workers in 2017. The expansion is a temporary one, and it only applies to the current year.

Comments

In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trump

[hondo77]

From the article:

The H-2B visa is used extensively by Trump's own businesses, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida. During the presidential campaign, Trump explained his use of H-2B visas by saying that "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

Rust Belt

[bill_mcgonigle]

If Trump were clever, he would allow unlimited H1B's in Rust Belt areas, with protections for local IT workers (assuming he won't support a free market, which is pretty much a given).

Silicon Valley CEO's don't want to go anywhere but down their mountain to work, but the massive influx of workers into one area is making things miserable for non CxO workers because of the density/demand-driven prices.

Want to see how badly the VC-fueled ventures really want to consume their H1B workers?

Re:Rust Belt

[DigiShaman]

H1Bs puts a deflationary pressure on the market, while the savings go toward the 1% with the H1B holders wiring money back over seas. This does NOTHING to help the lower and middle class Americans on US soil. The H1B program ought to be scrapped in its entirety unless serious reform is made to the program to prevent the exploitation currently going on with it.

Re:Rust Belt

[nine-times]

Setting aside the difficulty of giving such preferential treatment to a particular region, it won't really help. The problem isn't actually the contrast between the success of Silicon Valley vs. the implosion of the Rust Belt. The problem is actually more about the success of urban areas vs. the implosion of rural areas. And allowing more H1Bs in rural areas, aside from being difficult to enforce, would be ineffective.

You can have technology startups in any number of cities, but you aren't likely to see many in rural areas. First, because the infrastructure might not be available to support it. Second, because educated tech workers increasingly want to live in more urban areas. Third, because there's a lot of demand for specialized workers, and a fair amount of turnover, which means you need a high population density, which runs entirely contrary to the idea of a "rural area".

And that's not even dealing with the question of whether H1Bs are good for American workers.

You can't just have the government enforce cheap labor in an area and expect that companies are going to flood in. Cheap labor is great, but a lot more goes into running a company than that.

Re: Rust Belt

[zrobotics]

Because Cleveland and Detroit are definitely what I would call rural areas

Re:Trump businesses

[cahuenga]

And construction, also a Trump enterprise

Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum

[enjar]

The H-2B visa is used extensively by Trump's own businesses, including his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida. During the presidential campaign, Trump explained his use of H-2B visas by saying that "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

"... at the wage and benefit levels we are offering"

Re: Good, I'm glad

[Hognoxious]

This is putting US citizens first.

Sorry, did you mean all of them?

Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum

[quonset]

"getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible."

That's not the whole story. Here are the con artist's own words about using H-2B quotas at Mar-a-Lago:

"It's almost impossible to get help," the Republican presidential candidate told CNN last month. "And part of the reason you can't get American people is they want full time jobs."

Oh the horror. Americans wanting full-time jobs. But then, being the con artist, you don't suppose he's lying, do you? The next two paragraphs:

That is news to Tom Veenstra. He is senior director of support services at the Palm Beach County CareerSource office. It's a free service that links qualified job candidates with employers. And during the past two years, the agency has placed more than 50,000 people in jobs in Palm Beach County. Veenstra says he has no doubt he could fill Mar-a-Lago with U.S. workers.

"We have hundreds of qualified candidates for jobs like these," Veenstra told CNN. "That's what we do here. We help place local residents into jobs like those."

B.S.

[rsilvergun]

they'll go where the money is. Meanwhile pissing off rust belt employees is what cost Hilary the election (our demented politics means a few thousand people decide the outcome of presidential elections).

Re:Gotta luv the hypocrites on here

[Grishnakh]

If you're talking about the non-Trump voters, you're quite wrong. Personally, I'm laughing about this, because this is going to hurt the Trump voters who wanted protectionism against the immigrants who'd take these unskilled jobs. It's ironic: they stupidly thought Trump would work for their interests and that he was different (despite all evidence to the contrary), and now he's working directly against their interests. I'm curious how the Trump-lovers are going to spin this.

Tell me:

[Rick Schumann]

Tell me how importing 15,000 more foreign workers in any way shape or form helps "Make America Great Again"???

Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum

[twistedcubic]

  "Competing for [low-end service workers] via wages/benefits would drive our costs through the roof, which would in turn make our services so expensive that nobody could afford them."

Especially at Mar-a-Lago, which is frequently visited by poor and middle class vacationers.

Re:Good, I'm glad

[readin]

Free markets are great. One of the benefits is they keep commodity prices low, which is a good thing unless the work you do is a commodity.

Re:I worked at an amusement park through college

[Insanity Defense]

In some of these H2-B cases, these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

Then it is up to the employers to make the conditions more attractive to workers. .

Re:I worked at an amusement park through college

[sr180]

> For work like trash collection, it was difficult getting people, both domestic and foreign, to apply for those jobs. In some of these H2-B cases, these are actually jobs Americans don't want.

Because the free market has decided that the pay is too low. H2-B is just to keep wages low.

Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum

[gravewax]

yeah I am sure a couple of bucks ontop of the $2000 a night bill for Trumps golf club visitors would be devastating to their clientele.

Re:My solution?

[luis_a_espinal]

You get government benefits, and there is an H2B job available, you take that job or lose your benefits. It's the whole "get paid to not work" that makes this kind of BS possible. You wanna watch TV in an apartment instead of watch street traffic from a refrigerator box? Get a fucking job. Disabled? I'm sure there is an H2B job somewhere you can take.

That's bullshit. That there are people who exploit loopholes in welfare, that does not imply the majority are. I mean, for fuck's sake, we have families of serving members of the military depending on food stamps to make ends meet.

The majority of people who depend on some type of welfare are already fucking working. I mean, shit, Walmart has a program for his workers (full time and part time alike) on how to apply for welfare benefits to make ends meet. That should tell you something.

There are people in the Palm Beach area that would do these H2B jobs. They are simply not being hired. This isn't any different from companies skipping Americans and legal residents over H1B workers for jobs locals could do.

The only difference is that The Great Orange One is doing it, so that's all fine because somehow 'MURKA NUMMR WUN!

Re:In Case You're Wondering How This Benefits Trum

[judoguy]

"It's almost impossible to get help," the Republican presidential candidate told CNN last month. "And part of the reason you can't get American people is they want full time jobs."

Oh the horror.

Here in MN, the resorts are desperately trying to get more of these types of visa workers. These resorts are only open part of the year and can't give anyone full time jobs, American or foreign.

They actively recruit around the world to try and get workers for a few months. These aren't supposed to be jobs that allow someone to live year round. Often the workers have lodging as part of the deal. Sort of like camp councilors who get paid and work and live in a resort for a few months. Foreign teens and young adults seem to love this arrangement. American youth is often too affluent and/or lazy to do this type of work. There are jobs that aren't supposed to be a career. That's why the so called "living wage" obsession can't be universally applied.