A bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor, urging the agencies to release the maximum number of Congressionally-authorized H-2B visas for fiscal year 2025.
The H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Visa Program allows U.S. employers to hire seasonal, non-immigrant workers during peak seasons. Employers must declare that there are not enough U.S. workers available to do the work.
Virginia’s seafood industry, for example, relies on H-2B workers to shuck oysters and process crabs.
“Many employers turn to the H-2B program to meet their workforce needs to not only sustain their businesses, but also support their American workers,” the letter said. “The H-2B program places requirements on employers to recruit U.S. workers, who are intentionally prioritized by the program and also receive demonstrated, positive impacts from their seasonal colleagues. In fact, a 2020 Government Accountability Office report concluded that ‘counties with H-2B employers generally had lower unemployment rates and higher average weekly wages than counties that do not have any H-2B employers.’”
The number of job openings for the industries that represent the top five H-2B occupations increased year-over-year, according to the Department of Labor’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Surveys.