Thread: Doubling of worker visas shows Trump double-talk on immigration

Editorial:

Doubling of worker visas shows Trump double-talk on immigration

[COLOR=var(--primaryTextColor)]President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station in Calexico on April 5. That day, he told migrants to keep out because the U.S. was “full.”AP


With unemployment and births at or near record lows, the U.S. economy needs workers in many fields.

By THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD
APRIL 9, 2019 5:16 PM

In late March, on a day President Donald Trump again threatened to close the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security nearly doubled the number of H-2B seasonal employment visas available to foreign workers this summer — adding 30,000 to 33,000 already planned. A week later, at the California border, he told migrants that the United States “can’t take you anymore.
Our country is full.”

Yes, additional visas will go only to returning H-2B workers who have worked in the U.S. in the past three years. But the Trump administration’s decision to offer more of these seasonal visas than they have in past years — in non-agriculture blue-collar positions, often in the visitor industry — shows the nation isn’t “full.” Employers’ demand is so great that they had submitted requests for nearly 100,000 workers five minutes after they could do so, crashing the system, per The Boston Globe. By law, these visas can only be granted when “there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work,” according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Full? With unemployment and births at or near record lows, the U.S. economy needs workers in many fields. Trump defenders will say he’s making a distinction between those who seek to enter the nation legally with a visa and those who don’t. But the president’s history hardly suggests any nuance on immigration. He’s routinely depicted all immigrants — legal and unauthorized, highly skilled and less skilled — as net negatives for America.

And Trump has followed up on his rhetoric. In April 2017, he issued his “Buy American and Hire American” executive order that has made it more difficult for employers to hire and retain H-1B workers — foreigners with specialized skills who have helped fill crucial gaps at every U.S. tech hub.

The president is likely to keep railing against those who enter the nation without authorization and legal asylum seekers alike. But his administration’s H-2B decision and his unexpectedly effusive January tweet about the “talented and highly skilled people” who use H-1B visas show he realizes immigration is more complex than he lets on.

Those who have figured this out include a bipartisan group of 11 senators who sent a letter to the Trump administration urging it to increase the number of allowed H-2B visas to 135,200. They said the goal of their letter was “to convey the reality that a serious labor shortage confronts our country.”

Such a shortage is a profound threat to the economic growth that is Trump’s strongest card in seeking re-election. The easiest way to address this is by encouraging women with children and the elderly to return to the work force, as Japan has done.

But Japan has also abandoned its taboos on foreign workers, allowing skilled professionals to get permanent resident status after just one year. This points to the ultimate solution to the worker shortage. It’s comprehensive immigration reform — an omnibus measure that includes expanded visa programs, a provision like Japan’s to attract talented workers, border security improvements and creation of a path to citizenship for productive immigrants who have long lived in the United States.

Populist Trump who calls some immigrants “animals” may not want to admit this. But businessman Trump who said he regularly hired hundreds of foreign workers for his Mar-a-Lago club because “getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible” should want to admit it. The problem extends far beyond fancy Florida resorts.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...tion-h2b-visas

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