Thread: With visa program in limbo, seasonal businesses struggling

With visa program in limbo, seasonal businesses struggling

Apr 21, 2008

NORFOLK, Va. (Map, News) - Seafood processors, landscapers and other seasonal businesses are wondering if they'll have enough workers because of Congress's delay in renewing a visa program.

The program, which allows seasonal workers to return to the United States, expired in the fall. Attempts to renew it are mired in the national controversy over immigration reform.

Seasonal businesses that rely on foreign workers say they are struggling with skeleton staffs and may go out of business unless Congress renews the visa program, which allows 66,000 temporary nonagricultural workers into the country annually.

At Graham and Rollins, a seafood distributor in Hampton, 11 workers are processing crabs these days instead of the 100 foreign workers it typically hires.

"We've already set a date for July 1 to make a decision to pull the trigger to decide our fate," said Johnny Graham, president of the fourth-generation, family-owned crab processor. "One option is to close. There is no Plan B."

If the bill were to pass today, it would take at least a month to get workers here.

The business owners who rely on the seasonal help say the returning workers are being confused with illegal immigrants.

Many are experienced, such as most of the 30 to 40 employees at Pamlico Packing Co., said Don Cross, an owner of the Vandemere, N.C., seafood processor. "We need these workers."

Some businesses said they may attempt to hire the hundreds of foreign students who come to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks each summer, many from Russia and Eastern Europe.

There is no cap on the number of visiting foreign students, but they're permitted to stay here only 17 weeks, which might not be long enough to fill labor needs, said Muffy Grant with the Center for Cultural Interchange in Chicago.

http://tinyurl.com/4vfomw

Some businesses said they may attempt to hire the hundreds of foreign students who come to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks each summer, many from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Where there's a will, there's a way!

I just know Senator Mukulski will try to get visas for "crab pickers".

DID YOU SEE LOU DOBBS THE OTHER NIGHT? THE "CRAB PICKERS" WERE USING THEIR BARE HANDS TO PICK CRAB MEAT. WOULD YOU WANT TO EAT THAT? NOT ME!