Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: Larry Hogan presses Trump administration for visas for crab pickers

March 14, 2019 — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday pressed Trump administration officials to grant more work visas to immigrants, arguing seasonal laborers are a pillar of the Chesapeake Bay’s seafood industry.

Hogan, a moderate Republican weighing a 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, wrote to Cabinet secretaries that continuing to cap the seasonal visas that have been used by hundreds of migrant crab pickers for decades “could permanently damage Maryland’s seafood industry, causing . . . iconic family businesses to close and having a devastating impact on jobs in our state.”

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Hogan argued that each of the roughly 500 seasonal crab pickers who used to migrate to Maryland’s Eastern Shore generates 2.5 jobs for U.S. citizens. He cited a University of Maryland study and said the loss of those jobs, in turn, “threaten the livelihoods of commercial crabbers and waterman.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

U.S. Is Likely to Add About 15,000 Work Visas This Summer

May 11, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to make about 15,000 additional H-2B visas available for low-skilled foreign workers this summer, a modest supplement to the popular program, lawmakers and aides familiar with the planning said.

The number of visas available each year is capped by statute at 66,000, evenly divided between the summer and winter seasons. Congress declined to lift that cap during negotiations this spring. It did, however, give the secretary of Homeland Security authority to issue up to 69,000 more this summer if she determines there is sufficient need.

A range of businesses—including fisheries, landscapers and those in summer tourist spots—have been waiting to see if Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will use that authority.

Rep. Andy Harris (R., Md.), who is concerned about the need for visas among Maryland crab processors, said Ms. Nielsen told him to expect about 15,000 additional visas. An aide to another GOP member of Congress said he was told the same.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) said that in her home state, fisheries, which are heavy users of the program, are in desperate need of a decision within a week in order for the companies to have workers in place for the summer fish run.

“We are in a situation where, once again, our processors aren’t able to be on the ready to receive the fish when they hit. We can control lots of things. We cannot control when the fish come,” she said. “We are asking you, urging you, politely and then forcefully, to address this very, very quickly.”

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal