Republicans and Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee are united in their push to allow companies to import as many foreign workers with H-2B visas as possible into the U.S. to fill blue-collar jobs in construction, landscaping and other industries.
Companies are already allowed to import 66,000 H-2B foreign visa workers annually to fill blue-collar, non-farm jobs in the U.S. Congress has previously authorized, but not required, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor to allow companies to import an additional 65,000 H-2B foreign visa workers.
As Breitbart News has reported for years, the H-2B visa program is rife with abuse.
Ann Fixes The bill from Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), supported by both Republicans and Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, would require the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor to issue an additional 65,000 H-2B visas on top of the 66,000 allocated annually to companies.
Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV), Lauren Underwood (D-IL), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), and Chellie Pingree (D-MA) all voted in favor of Harris’ amendment. Underwood, in particular, supports requiring the federal government to import more H-2B workers, but acknowledges that the program is often used as a low-wage way for companies to cut costs.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) raised the issue of the H-2B visa program, noting that “from 2000 to 2021, the Department of Labor conducted 225,000 inspections across seven major H-2B industries and found violations in 80 percent of them.”
“From 2018 to 2020 alone, 853 H-2B visa workers reported being victims of labor exploitation, with two-thirds of them being threatened with deportation. [by employers]and almost half of them reported that they were given misinformation about the job they took,” Pocan continued.
Some women alleged that their employers tapped employees’ cell phones, locked them in small trailers at night, and subjected them to frequent harassment, demanding they show their breasts or that their superiors demanded sex in order to keep their jobs. It’s not a perfect program.
Pocan also said the H-2B visa program is being used to undercut wages in the construction industry and suggested he opposes allowing companies to hire foreign construction workers when there are plenty of available American construction workers.
“I’m concerned about this program. The H-2B visas [the tourism industry] “That’s very valid, but I don’t think it’s as valid in the construction industry,” Pocan said. “It would be great to have that conversation.”
The move to mandate more foreign workers with H-2B visas to join the U.S. workforce comes after the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that nearly all of the job growth under President Joe Biden has come from immigrants, not native-born Americans.
Last year, 637,000 foreign-born workers joined the U.S. labor market while about 300,000 native-born Americans dropped out of the labor force. From May 2019 to May 2024, about 3.2 million immigrants joined the U.S. labor market. At the same time, fewer than 1 million native-born Americans joined the labor market.
At the same time, the labor force participation rate for working-class, mature American men has fallen from 95.8% in 1960 to 84.8% in 2024, with no end to this decline in sight.
Each year, the United States issues green cards to approximately 1.2 million legal immigrants and another 1.4 million foreign workers. Hospitalized Every year, more and more foreigners are hired on visas to fill American jobs. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants enter the labor market each year, many of them with federal work permits.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
