A coalition of Republican and Democrat Senators is lobbying Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to more than double the number of low-skilled foreign workers that businesses can import to take blue-collar American jobs.
Eleven Republican and Democrat Senators, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME), are seeking to convince Nielsen to once again increase the number of H-2B foreign workers who are admitted every season to take U.S. jobs that would otherwise go to young and working-class Americans.
Every year, U.S. companies are allowed to import 66,000 low-skilled H-2B foreign workers to take blue-collar, non-agricultural jobs. For some time, the H-2B visa program has been used by businesses to bring in cheaper, foreign workers and has contributed to blue-collar Americans having their wages undercut.
The letter by the coalition of Republicans and Democrats asks Nielsen to more than double the number of H-2B foreign workers to 135,320 for the business lobby.
Pro-American immigration reformers worry Nielsen will listen to the business lobby and political establishment’s cries for cheaper, foreign workers for their corporate donors. Nielsen and her close ally, John Kelly, have consistently increased the H-2B visa cap for the past two years, against the will of President Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” policy.
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