U.S. Senators from Maine Susan Collins and Angus King announced Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) are expected to make an additional 64,716 H-2B worker visas available for Fiscal Year 2024.
[RELATED: Biden Admin Extends Temporary Protected Status to 472,000 Venezuelan Nationals Living in the US…]
The over 64,000 temporary nonagricultural worker visas will come in addition to the congressionally mandated 66,000 H-2B visas that are available each fiscal year.
“These additional H-2B visas are a welcome relief for small businesses throughout Maine that continue to face a shortage of employees,” the Senators said in a Wednesday press release. “These visas are a lifeline for our state’s economy, helping businesses meet the increasing demand for their products and services.”
Senator Collins and King previously led a successful push in December 2022 to raise the H-2B limit to approximately 65,000 visas.
The announced supplemental allocation of H-2B visas for FY 2024 is expected to include 20,000 visas for workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras.
The remaining 44,716 visas will be made available to returning foreign workers who previously received a H-2B visa, or were otherwise granted H-2B status, during the last three fiscal years.
The H-2B program is intended to allow foreign workers to fill seasonal or temporary positions Americans have not taken.
Under federal regulations, in order to hire an H-2B visa recipient employers are first required to determine that qualified workers in the U.S. are not available to perform the temporary work, and that the employment of the H-2B worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="23195 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=23195">7 Comments
What a crock! These two lifelong political hacks are utterly useless. Eliminate subsidies and welfare benefits for those who refuse to work and we’d solve the labor problem immediately.
Younger Americans have not been taught that there is dignity in ALL work. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to make it mandatory for HS students to read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” (most likely they’d need the audio version of the book) instead of being force fed the DEI, CRT and LGBTQ, etc. agendas pushed by the Leftist Teacher Unions.
Mass immigration is a bad idea because:
1. It increases crime.
2. It lowers the standard of living.
3. It alters the character of the receiving state/nation.
4. It makes maintaining different populations impossible.
5. It spreads diseases.
6. It is irreversible.
To do what?
How does this help Maine, a state you call “home” but will not be here, to witness the downfall? Shame on you! This just adds to the end of America, a place I used to feel safe to live in. 😪
Maybe they can work in the Chinese Marijuana Grow House conversions in rural Maine ?
Crocodile tears are abundant.
“We need better serfs for our lawn care, twice the population of Washington County should do it”
We got squeezed out of our trade by these supplemental workers last summer!! It’s taken us 4 months to get work and we are traveling to VT and NH as Maine is tone deaf. Senator Hickman’s eyes glazed over when I told him the only thing more insulting then sending a job overseas is to bring. Replacements. Here.