Business Owners Voice Need To Raise H2-B Visa Cap, Hire Workers

WESTHAMPTON, NY — Summer in the Hamptons equals the need for an infusion of seasonal workers — and on Wednesday, local business owners turned out with Rep. Lee Zeldin, calling upon the Department of Homeland Security to raise the H-2B visa program cap to ensure that an adequate workforce is in place before the peak season is in full swing.

Zeldin, local employers, and elected officials met at Peat & Son Nursery in Westhampton, where Zeldin said Congress needed to enact a more permanent, long term solution to improve the H-2A and H-2B visa programs.

Seasonal visa programs allow employers to supplement their current workforce by hiring foreign workers on a seasonal basis; these foreign workers come to the United States legally filling jobs not already filled by U.S. employees in areas of labor shortage, Zeldin said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already notified employers the 66,000 visa cap has been reached for the second half of the year for H-2B and many businesses locally and throughout the country have not received the workforce they need — even though the local workforce just is not available in many communities, Zeldin said.

He added that he believes it is clear the current H-2B visa cap cannot adequately meet the demands of today's seasonal businesses, and DHS must lift the cap to provide certainty and stability.

“If you employed every single able-bodied person in Suffolk County it would still not be enough to fill all of the open positions these business owners have,” Zeldin said. “It is a great problem to have, when our local economy has more available jobs than people available to fill the positions, but it is imperative our employers are able to somehow fill their work force legally and immediately. Peak season is upon us and the Secretary of Homeland Security must utilize her authority to raise the cap to ensure Suffolk County businesses have the workforce they need for this peak season as well as stability and consistency in the years ahead.”

"This program is the lifeblood of our resort town and many others just like it throughout America."

Others agreed.

“It's no secret that our sleepy little hamlet of Montauk has become a well-known and extremely popular vacation destination,” said President of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce Paul Monte. “Each year, thanks to our residents and loyal visitors, hundreds of millions of dollars in spending are generated just by the accommodations, food and beverage and retail industries in our little hamlet. Over the past 10 years it has become increasingly difficult to find homegrown labor to fill our seasonal positions, and now, with our booming economy and record low unemployment it is almost impossible. The solution to this ongoing problem has been the H-2B visa, guest worker program. This program is the lifeblood of our resort town and many others just like it throughout America. Without the seasonal workers provided by this program many businesses would be forced to scale back on their services or in some cases actually close their doors for good.”

The agricultural community has the potential to be hit especially hard, many agreed.

"The workforce provided by the H-2A visa program is vital to enabling the farmers in Suffolk County to continue to feed our local communities,” said Rob Carpenter, director of the Long Island Farm Bureau after the event. “At every level — from the farms to the halls of Congress — it is critical that everyone understands what an important role this program, and the workforce it provides, plays in our communities and for our small businesses that are the backbone of our towns.”

With the busiest season fast approaching, local business owners are worried that they won’t have the workforce they need to meet demand, explained landscape specialist Gordon Andrews of Hampton Bays before the event.

“Year after year, we experience the same uncertainty, which hurts the potential growth of our business and our local economy. If we are unable to fill these jobs with the available U.S. workforce, we must be able to fill them immediately through the H-2B program," he said.

John Tortorella of Southampton thanked Zeldin for his vocal advocacy on the issue. "As a business owner, the ability to provide for my customers during peak season is reliant on the workforce provided through the H-2B visa program," he said. "In addition to lifting the current H-2B visa cap, there are vital reforms that must be made to the underlying program so business owners like myself don’t have to worry about having the labor we need season after season."

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc wrote a letter to federal elected officials recently asking them to address the concerns and support changes to help ensure that East Hampton businesses can hire their seasonal workers in a timely fashion, he said in a release.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the H-2B program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs. A U.S. employer, or U.S. agent as described in the regulations, must file a Form I-129, or petition for non-immigrant worker, on a prospective worker's behalf, the site explains.

USCIS, the site added, "is no longer accepting petitions filed under the temporary final rule, increasing the fiscal year 2018 numerical limit on H-2B nonimmigrant visas. USCIS will reject and return any petitions received after June 6, 2018 that were not selected in the lottery, as well as any cap-subject petitions. Petitions accepted for processing will have a receipt date of June 11, 2018. . . Only employers whose petitions were accepted will receive receipt notices."

USCIS, the site said, will continue to accept H-2B petitions with start dates for fiscal year 2018 that are exempt from, or not counted toward, the congressionally mandated cap. USCIS will consider petitions requesting an employment start date on or after Oct. 1, 2018, toward the fiscal year 2019 cap.

"Three elements of the H-2B visa program are negatively impacting East Hampton businesses: the annual quota/cap on the number of visas issued, and the lottery procedure; the lack of an expedited process or exemption for returning workers, and — particularly this year, following the government shutdown — delays in issuing visas that leave business owners unsure of staffing until late February or March, or even later into the spring," according to the letter, which was signed by the entire East Hampton town board.

The letter, which was sent to Zeldin along with Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, "underscores the importance to local businesses of H-2B visa workers, in the face of an insufficient local workforce to meet their peak season needs. It asks the officials to support expedited processing of 2019 H2-B visas, an increase in the number of visas issued annually, and an exemption for workers who have already qualified for the visa program and are returning to an employer," a release said.

"Congressman Zeldin is supportive of finding a long-term solution to the H-2B program for employers and has voted in the past in favor of a returning workers exemption for H-2B as well as increasing the visa cap," Zeldin's media representative said. "Congressman Zeldin will continue to actively pursue a long-term solution that fixes the H-2B program, streamlines the visa application and issuance process and provides stability and certainty for local employers, ensuring they have the workers they need."