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Mexican workers sleep while a night bus takes them from Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) to Denver. The workers were hired by CoCal Landscape, a Denver-based landscaping company, as temporary employees through H2-B visas in 2017. (Bastien Inzaurralde / The Washington Post)
While President Trump threatened to close the US-Mexico border in recent days, his Homeland Security Department has almost doubled the number of temporary guest worker visas available this summer.
The Homeland Security and Labor departments plan to grant an additional 30,000 H-2B visas this summer, in addition to the 33,000 they had already planned to give, the agencies confirmed.
The H-2B visa allows foreign workers to legally enter the United States and work for several months in companies such as landscapers, amusement parks or hotels. About 80% of these visas were issued to citizens of Mexico and Central America last year, the government data shows.
Trump says that there is a national emergency on the southern border because too many people are trying to illegally arrive in the United States or to seek asylum. On Friday, he implored the migrants to turn around and go home.
"I can not take it anymore," Trump said as he stood on the California border. "Our country is full."
But his administration sends a different message to some workers in the short term. With additional visas, the Trump administration is about to grant 96,000 H-2B visas during this fiscal year, the record since 2007, the year of George W. Bush's presidency.
[U.S. economy added 196,000 jobs in March]
"It is ironic that Trump demagoguery and opposes what is called a deluge of migrants and caravans from Mexico and Central America, dangerous and scary, and even threatens to close the border while using his legal authority to raise a guest. wage earner, "said Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Left Economic Policy Institute.
The main theme of Trump's presidential campaign was that foreign workers were stealing jobs in the United States, but he recently said that it might be necessary to recruit more guest workers because the economy is doing so well. although companies can not find enough staff to fill the positions. The unemployment rate, at 3.8%, is almost at its lowest in 50 years.
[Trump’s Fed nominee Stephen Moore was found in contempt of court for failing to pay ex-wife more than $333,000]
Congress enjoys bipartisan support that urges the administration to take this step. A group of senators, including Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Min.), Sent a letter to the Trump administration urging them to leave more H-2B workers. The Department of Homeland Security decided in late March to increase the number of visas offered and is expected to publish the details in the Federal Register soon.
The H-2B program is supposed to grant 66,000 visas per year, about half of them for the winter months and the other for the summer, but the Congress gave the Trump administration the power to issue 69 000 during this exercise.
DHS has finally decided to issue the additional 30,000 to those who have already received an H-2B visa.
These visas arouse such interest that in general, they all disappear within minutes of the opening of the application process. Trump hotels relied on H-2B workers and President Mar-a-Lago's club in Florida asked 78 of these visas last year.
Defenders of American workers say Trump undermines domestic workers by giving them as many H-2B visas.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates a drop in immigration, said Trump "betrays US workers" with this increase in the number of H-2B visas.
[From $22 an hour to $11: GM job cuts in Ohio show a hot economy is still leaving parts of America behind]
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-wing think tank, released a study this week showing that H-2B visa workers are generally paid less than US workers with similar jobs. For example, landscape workers with visas receive an average of $ 12.94 per hour, more than $ 1 less than the average wage of $ 14.28 paid to US workers, according to a data analysis. Department of Labor and H-2B visa application.
Many companies that employ these workers claim to pay the rates in effect in their regions.
"Trump seems perfectly willing to let people emigrate to the United States if they are exploited workers, especially if they go to work for one of his businesses," Costa said.
Many companies claim to have an urgent need for manpower and have no other choice. The government claims to have received 30 times more H-2B visa applications this year compared to last year. The crab companies on the east coast of Maryland are among those seeking more of these guest legal workers.
A spokeswoman for DHS said Congress "is in the best position" to know the appropriate number of H-2B visas needed by the economy. She said the ministry urged Congress to repair the immigration system and set the appropriate visa levels.
Trump has hinted in recent weeks that he could allow more guest workers because the economy is doing so well.
"I brought all these companies. They need workers. We need to bring people to our country to work in these beautiful factories that are opening up everywhere, "he said in a speech last month at the Conservative political action conference.
Related:
Trump plans to appoint Herman Cain to the Fed's board of directors
From $ 22 / hour to $ 11: Job cuts at GM in Ohio show that a booming economy still leaves some of America behind
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