To fill seasonal job openings, Collins, King call for more H-2B visas

Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King

File photos U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, made a successful push to get tens of thousands of additional visas to bridge an expected shortage of Maine workers next summer.

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By Staff

Maine’s U.S. senators on Monday co-led a bipartisan group of 14 urging the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant more H-2B visas for seasonal workers from other countries.

In a letter, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, and other senators called on DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf to increase the number of visas, now capped annually at 66,000, to “the maximum allowable by law" for the 2020 fiscal year.

The H-2B visa program allows foreign workers to come to the U.S. temporarily to fill seasonal, nonagricultural jobs. Businesses must request the visas and are required to first make a concerted effort to hire American workers for the openings. Last year, 131 Maine employers requested visas to fill about 2,500 positions, according to the state.

Many of those jobs are in the tourism and hospitality industries, which are grappling with chronic labor shortages. Businesspeople lay some of the blame on the lack of visas.

“The continued tightening of the labor market warrants this increase,” the senators wrote. “In some industries, particularly tourism, we fear that the demand for workers so far outstrips the available supply that businesses could be forced to curtail operations, putting at risk the jobs of American workers who fill year-round positions at these establishments.”

Bipartisan research has found a direct correlation between increased numbers of H-2B workers and a rise in pay for all employees, Collins and King noted in a news release.

The DHS, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Labor, granted an additional 30,000 H-2B visas in 2019, and an extra 15,000 in both 2017 and 2018. In addition, the letter notes, the last tranche of visas — 33,000 made available in January — received over 96,000 applications.