January 24, 2020 — Maryland officials are stepping up their efforts to help crab houses in the state get the workers they need to remain viable.
Earlier this week, Governor Larry Hogan sent a letter to Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia asking them to lift the cap on H-2B visas the country issues.
August 14, 2019 — The following was released by U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services:
Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule that clearly defines long-standing law to better ensure that aliens seeking to enter and remain in the United States — either temporarily or permanently — are self-sufficient and rely on their own capabilities and the resources of family members, sponsors, and private organizations rather than on public resources.
This final rule amends DHS regulations by prescribing how DHS will determine whether an alien is inadmissible to the United States based on his or her likelihood of becoming a public charge at any time in the future, as set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The final rule addresses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) authority to permit an alien to submit a public charge bond in the context of adjustment of status applications. The rule also makes nonimmigrant aliens who have received certain public benefits above a specific threshold generally ineligible for extension of stay and change of status.
“For over a century, the public charge ground of inadmissibility has been part of our nation’s immigration laws. President Trump has delivered on his promise to the American people to enforce long-standing immigration law by defining the public charge inadmissibility ground that has been on the books for years,” said USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli. “Throughout our history, self-sufficiency has been a core tenet of the American dream. Self-reliance, industriousness, and perseverance laid the foundation of our nation and have defined generations of hardworking immigrants seeking opportunity in the United States ever since. Through the enforcement of the public charge inadmissibility law, we will promote these long-standing ideals and immigrant success.”
April 9, 2019 — The U.S. seafood industry and others that rely on temporary labor received good news at the end of last month when President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would allocate an extra 30,000 visas under the H-2B worker program.
It’s a marked change from the last couple years, when the administration released only 15,000 visas, which companies can use to hire foreign workers for non-agricultural jobs. This year’s announcement by the Department of Homeland Security also comes two full months ahead of last year’s. That will give seafood processors and other companies more time to apply and bring workers in for the seasonal jobs.
The decision means 63,000 visas will be available for companies through the end of the fiscal year, which ends in September. However, the 30,000 additional visas will only be available to workers who received one during one of the last three fiscal years.
Maryland officials applauded the news. The state’s crab industry has been hard hit by the lack of visas, with some businesses having to close because they could not get visas they needed to secure workers. In addition to seafood processors, hotels, landscapers, and the horse-racing trainers are among the businesses that seek these waivers to hire staff for their seasonal needs.
March 28, 2018 — President Donald Trump has signed a new 2,232-page Omnibus Spending Bill sent to him by the Senate after it passed the House of Representative that includes an increase in the H-2B Guest Worker Program for the remainder of the year.
The H-2B program allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers to fill low-skill, non-agricultural positions. Currently it provides for an annual cap of 66,000 visas per year, with a few exceptions.
The new bill contains a provision to once again allow the Department of Homeland Security to exceed the annual cap on admissions of unskilled non-agricultural workers. If fully implemented by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, it has the potential to add as many as 63,000 additional H-2B guest workers next year, nearly doubling the size of the program.
New Bill Huge Improvement
“The new provision to exceed the cap on admissions will sure will help a lot!” exclaimed Jennifer Jenkins, a Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member and owner of Crystal Seas Oyster in Pass Christian, MS, whose company depends on the more than 150 H-2B workers each year. “I’m not sure it will solve all the problems because there are so many people trying to use the program, but anything is a huge improvement from where we were a week ago.”
The H-2B Foreign Worker program, many from Mexico and Central America, has continued to grow at a steady pace. The Gulf States of Texas, Florida and Louisiana have more than 33,000 H-2B workers alone, with occupational categories that include: landscaping and grounds keeping workers, seafood workers, forest and conservation workers, and maids and housekeeping.
Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News
September 26, 2017 — Feb. 26, 2016: Federal authorities raided Carlos Seafood on South Front Street in New Bedford, arresting owner Carlos Rafael, 64, and bookkeeper Debra Messier, 60, both of Dartmouth, on charges of conspiracy and falsifying records. Rafael was held without bail; Messier was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
March 2, 2016: Rafael is allowed to return home under strict conditions of a $1 million bond; he is allowed to continue working, too. Rafael and his wife, Conceicao, agree to place their Tucker Lane home in North Dartmouth and Carlos Seafood as collateral for the bond.
March 25, 2016: Prosecutors receive an extension of the deadline to indict Rafael. The length of the deadline’s extension is not disclosed.
May 4, 2016: Rafael has been indicted by federal prosecutors for lying about fish catches and smuggling cash to Portugal through Logan airport in Boston, in a multi-year scheme involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court documents. The indictment lists 27 counts against Rafael, for charges including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling. Rafael is alleged to have falsely reported the species of more than 815,000 pounds of fish to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) between 2012 and January 2016, according to the Office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.
May 4, 2016: Antonio Freitas, 46, of Taunton is charged with using his special assignment status as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Task Force, which gave him access to restricted areas of Logan International Airport, to help Rafael smuggle cash out of the U.S. Freitas is a member of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Honor Guard.
July 24, 2017 — An announcement made last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expand a guest worker program was met with a mix of cheers and frustration by seafood industry representatives and elected officials from key states in the trade.
DHS Secretary John Kelly said he agreed to expand the H-2B visa program through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September. The visa program, designed for temporary workers coming to the country to fill nonagricultural jobs, helps employers fill jobs they say would otherwise sit vacant.
Congress established a cap of 66,000 such workers this year, with 33,000 visas available during both halves of the year. However, in May, lawmakers gave Kelly the authority to consider a one-time extension in the program. Over the last couple of months, DHS officials worked with the U.S. Department of Labor to establish guidelines regarding the expansion.
In past years, the seafood industry benefitted greatly from the visa program. According to data from the Center for Immigration Studies, Alaska-based Silver Bay Seafoods employed 971 H-2B workers – more than any other employer in the country last year. Peter Pan Seafoods, Inc., received approval for nearly 400 H-2B workers at its Alaska operation, while in North Carolina, Capt. Charlie’s Seafood employed 200.
July 19, 2017 — A former Massachusetts sheriff’s deputy has been convicted of helping a fishing mogul known as “The Codfather” smuggle profits out of the country.
A federal jury in Boston found 47-year-old Antonio Freitas guilty Wednesday of charges of bulk cash smuggling and structuring the export of U.S. currency. The former Bristol County sheriff’s deputy will be sentenced in October.
Prosecutors say Carlos Rafael, who owns Carlos Seafood, Inc. in New Bedford, lied to federal authorities for years about the quantity and species of fish his boats caught to evade federal quotas.
Rafael pleaded guilty in March to federal charges of evading fishing quotas and smuggling money to Portugal.
Prosecutors say Freitas helped Rafael smuggle the profits to Portugal while also working as a Department of Homeland Security task force officer.
March 16, 2017 — Opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed slashing of the Coast Guard budget to pay for the Mexican border wall continues to grow, with members of Congress arguing cuts would contradict the president’s goal of rebuilding the nation’s armed forces.
Nearly 60 bi-partisan members of the House of Representatives, including 6th District Congressman Seth Moulton of Salem, signed a letter Monday highlighting the folly of cutting about $1.3 billion, or about 14.3 percent, from the Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion annual budget.
The letter, addressed to the chairman and ranking member of the House subcommittee on homeland security, stated the Office of Management and Budget’s financial outline for the Department of Homeland Security — which includes the Coast Guard — is a “cause for serious alarm.”
“It is nonsensical to pursue a policy of rebuilding the armed forces while proposing large reductions to the U.S. Coast Guard budget,” the letter stated. “Without question, OMB’s proposed cut targeting the Coast Guard directly contradicts the president’s stated goals and should be dismissed.”
The letter points to the pivotal role the Coast Guard plays in the interdiction of illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants and its direct impact on border security and law enforcement. It said the proposed cuts severely discount the value and effectiveness of the U.S. Coast Guard in both areas.
September 20, 2016 — A human rights outrage that has quietly simmered below the public consciousness in recent years exploded on the national scene just days ago when the Associated Press disclosed near slavery conditions for foreign workers on American fishing boats in Honolulu and San Francisco.
A six-month investigation by Pulitzer Prize winners Martha Mendoza and Maggie Mason corroborated what has been known by senior U.S. officials and the Hawaii restaurant industry, among others, for years: U.S. flagged boats employ undocumented men, confining them to the ships sometimes for years because they lack the required visas to permit them to come ashore.
They’re paid as little as 70 cents an hour and often work 20 hours a day at backbreaking, sometimes dangerous tasks with the approval of the U.S. government but none of its legal protections.
As Civil Beat’s Washington, D.C., columnist Kirsten Downey reported Friday, the report has prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate, with U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard pushing for immediate action to provide protections for the workers. Congressional candidate Colleen Hanabusa called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate, as well — it is home to the Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the AP report, Sen. Mazie Hirono sought to provide some help through legislation that would permit the fishers to fly into the United States. That would expand the transit visas already allowed the men, who are permitted to fly home from the Honolulu airport, despite technically never having legally entered the United States. But even that modest assistance did not pass.
Hanabusa and Schatz both made the point that, thus far, the matter consists of media findings that must be officially investigated. That’s of course necessary and appropriate, as well as long overdue.
March 23, 2016 — WASHINGTON — In a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security, six U.S. senators urged funding for the Fishing Safety Training Grant Program and Fishing Safety Research Grant Program in Homeland Security’s 2017 appropriations bill.
“The safety and survival of our commercial fishermen are of the utmost importance, and we fully support the expansion of safety training requirements,” the senators wrote. “We are concerned, however, that the high costs of this required training will fall entirely on the fishing families in our states who continue to experience tremendous financial strain.”
The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 (CGAA) extended the scope of safety and survival training programs for commercial fishermen. The safety rules, which took effect in 2015, require individuals in charge of commercial fishing vessels to complete the training if they operate beyond three nautical miles offshore. Previously, this training was only mandatory for individuals operating beyond 13 nautical miles offshore.
“Safety and survival training is critically important for fishermen who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, work in the deadliest industry in America and are 37 times more likely to die on the job than a police officer,” the senators wrote. “This training undoubtedly saves lives.”
The signatories were Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Angus King (I-ME), Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA).