WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has said it will issue nearly 65,000 additional H-2B guest worker visas through September, effectively doubling the maximum number that can be issued in a year.
Employers in the US who wish to bring over foreigners as temporary workers can do so by taking advantage of the H-2B program. This program allows employers to petition for individuals overseas and have them lawfully work in the US for a given period of time.
President Donald Trump has broadly moved to drastically cut legal avenues of immigration, and he has directed a mass deportation campaign that has brought aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns to American cities. Another visa for skilled workers through another program, known as the H-1B, has been imperiled by the Trump administration imposing a $100,000 fee for applicants to the program.
But Trump has endured backlash from his base for voicing his support for H-1Bs. And the move to issue tens of thousands of additional H-2B guest worker visas reflects Trump’s unusual sensitivity to American businesses, many of which have been negatively affected by his tariff policies, that insist that they need seasonal foreign workers to stay afloat.
The president has been a frequent and longtime user of the H-2B program for jobs like cooks, housekeepers and servers at his properties. His companies continued to hire H-2 workers during his first presidential term, including at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Agencies have routinely authorized additional worker visas under the H-2B program once they receive more applications than the statutory maximum of 66,000 visas in a year. But employers could not as easily count on supplemental visas being issued since Trump returned to office last year, and lobbying groups pushed the president to move more quickly this year to issue more visas.
“The American economy depends on a reliable, legal, and timely workforce to keep essential industries running,” the National Association of Landscape Professionals said in a statement in December that called for the release of more visas, adding that seasonal industries, like landscaping, construction and hospitality, “are facing severe labor shortages that threaten their ability to operate at full capacity.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
