A Miserly 15,000 More Visas

Wall Street Journal (Editorial)

May 28, 2018

A Miserly 15,000 More Visas

Memorial Day kicked off the summer vacation season with its high demand for seasonal workers amid a nationwide labor shortage. But you wouldn’t know it from last week’s miserly decision by the Department of Homeland Security to hand out a mere 15,000 extra H-2B visas this summer.

The popular H-2B program allows businesses to hire foreign guest-workers for busy seasons, and the law caps the number at 66,000 divided between summer and winter. But amid the tight labor market, and a 3.9% jobless rate, Congress gave the Administration authority to issue as many as 69,000 more visas this summer to meet employer needs.

“The limitations on H-2B visas were originally meant to protect American workers, but when we enter a situation where the program unintentionally harms American businesses it needs to be reformed,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement last week.

Yes, but then why so stingy with more visas? The 15,000 won’t come close to meeting the demands across the country from resorts, fisheries, landscapers and restaurants, among many other industries.

Ms. Nielsen has been a target—unfair in our view—of President Trump’s wrath on border security, so perhaps she doesn’t want to get hit again by vocal immigration critics for issuing more visas. Restrictionists on the political right claim they merely oppose illegal immigration, but in the current economy they are betraying their hostility to any immigration. They claim more foreign crab pickers or busboys will displace Americans when employers can’t come close to finding enough Americans for the work. Perhaps Ms. Nielsen should consult President Trump’s sons, since the Trump Organization is a regular user of H-2B visas.

The recent Institute for Supply Management semiannual survey found that 64.4% of nonmanufacturing employers and 77.9% of manufacturers report difficulty hiring workers for open jobs. Mr. Trump says he wants the economy to grow by 4% or more, but it won’t happen if employers can’t find enough workers.

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