January 18, 2005

A cap on the number of temporary foreign workers allowed in the United States could lead to a work force crisis for the Rhode Island tourism industry this summer.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped accepting new petitions Jan. 3, after the number of H-2B visas reached its limit of 66,000 nationally. A spokesman for the USCIS said the cap was met last March for the first time in history.

“We feel like the carpet has been pulled from under us,” said Ted Schroeder, general manager of the Newport Harbor Hotel. Schroeder said the hotel will be short the 18 Jamaican H-2B workers the hotel has employed every year since 2000.

“I don’t know how we’ll find people who want to work April through October, and if we can’t staff the hotel, we can’t serve to capacity. All the local restaurants and businesses are going to suffer,” he said.

He added that the hotel bought a two-family house and leases another in Newport for those workers, who left their three cars in the driveway and many belongings behind.

Industry experts point to tightened post-Sept. 11 immigration laws as the reason for the ballooning use of the H-2B visas, saying many foreigners are turning to H-2B visas because other types of visas are harder to get.

Locally, tourism representatives say the federal law is unfair because it gives regions with an early tourism season an advantage. Companies cannot apply for workers through the visa system any sooner than 120 days before the workers are needed.

The cap is hurting the Northeast more than other regions of the country because its busy season comes later than other regions, said Jane Zimmerman, director of Antioch Associates USA Inc., a Massachusetts-based company that provides H-2B filing assistance to employers.

“Places like Florida that require help during the winter file for H-2Bs right when the federal fiscal year starts in October, so they end up getting them first. It isn’t a diplomatic system at all,” said Zimmerman, who plans to travel to Jamaica on Jan. 19 to inform workers they will not have their annual jobs this year.

The process of getting foreign workers on the H-2B visa – used for seasonal work, intermittent need, peak-load need and one-time occurrences – starts with the state Department of Labor. Business owners advertise the positions needed to be filled and report the response to the Department of Labor. If the agency determines there aren’t adequate U.S. workers, the employer is allowed to file applications for H-2B visas through the USCIS up to 120 days before the help is actually needed. If the agency approves, the Department of State issues those visas.

The length of time someone can stay in the country on an H-2B visa depends on the employers’ temporary need. The visa is allowed for up to one year with the possibility to extend for three years. There are also salary requirements that ensure foreign laborers receive fair wages.

H-2Bs are used in various industries throughout the country. In Rhode Island, the seasonal hospitality industry relies on them; in Maine, the visas are used by the logging industry; the need for rangers out west is filled by H-2B visa workers; and Disney on Ice skaters from foreign countries use the visa, said Brendan Flanagan, legislative representative of the National Restaurant Association.

Julie Fuller, general manager of The National Hotel on Block Island, applies for about 25 H-2B visas each year – representing one-third of the hotel’s seasonal work force. She added that, in many cases, the hotel hires the same Brazilian workers again and again.

On Jan. 6, Fuller called one of the longtime Brazilian employees, Louis Gorisch, asking him to spread the word to other workers that they will not be able to work for her this year.

“I feel bad for these people. Many of them leave their families for five months to earn a good living and now they won’t be able to. I just hope we can change this,” Fuller said.

The hotel and many other businesses on Block Island that are only open April through November rely on immigrant workers who arrive on the island long before college students get out of class for summer and stay after the college students go back to the mainland in September.

“The foreign workers I hire take pride in their jobs and have such a strong work ethic, I never worry about the job not getting done. My American staff is mostly college students who come to Block Island to have a good time and don’t take the job as seriously,” Fuller said.

Curt Gross, chief operating officer at Newport Harbor Corporation, which owns Castle Hill, the Mooring, 22 Bowens, Newport Yachting Center, and other properties in Newport, found out on Jan. 7 the 30 H-2B visa workers – many of whom are involved in the Employee Stock Ownership Program – have been shut out and the company has to invest in training and recruiting new workers this season.

The sudden demand hasn’t been analyzed by Citizenship and Immigration Services or the Department of State and neither organization had the number of petitions filed for previous years because the cap had never been reached before 2004, said USCIC spokesman Chris Bentley. The organizations did not have the number of filings for previous years available by press time.

Some industry members suspect stronger security regulations following Sept. 11 have made it more difficult for foreigners to obtain other types of visas so more employers are applying for H-2Bs, but representatives from the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security said it is not more difficult to obtain visas, but the process takes slightly longer for certain types that now require fingerprinting and security scanning.

Since October of last year, when a foreign national applies for a visa, fingerprints and pictures of the applicant are taken and the information is cleared through the Homeland Security Department’s automated identification system as required under the 2002 Enhanced Border Security Act and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002.

Legislation that would have lifted the cap on short-term visas stalled in Congress in the 2004 session, but industry groups urge Congress to lift the cap for 2005.

Dale. J. Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association, who said she has been inundated with calls from concerned business owners, sent letters to Rhode Island congressmen James R. Langevin, Patrick Kennedy, and senators Lincoln Chafee and Jack Reed last week.

At this point, the USCIS is returning all petitions over the limit along with the $180 filing fee and the processing fee.

Petitioners may re-submit or file new petitions when they have received labor certification approval for work to start on or after Oct. 1, 2005, when the federal fiscal year begins again.

Source : http://www.pbn.com