Politics

Guest Worker Program Expanded Fourfold Under New Provision In Spending Bill

(REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

Kerry Picket Political Reporter
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WASHINGTON — A measure included in the omnibus package would quadruple the H-2B foreign worker program, according to a new report from Numbers USA.

Alabama Sen. [crscore]Jeff Sessions[/crscore], Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, released a statement on the measure Wednesday saying it would “fund the president’s entire immigration agenda.”

The measure would increase the number of H-2B visa workers permitted in the U.S. in 2016 from 66,000 to about 264,000. The provision is on page 701 of the omnibus spending bill:

“SEC. 565. Section 214(g)(9)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(9)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘2004, 2005, or 2006 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2007.’’ and inserting ‘‘2013, 2014, or 2015 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2016.’’

The omnibus provision was sponsored by Maryland Democratic Sen. [crscore]Barbara Mikulski[/crscore] and North Carolina Republican Sen. [crscore]Thom Tillis[/crscore].

The H-2B program is primarily targeted at temporary, seasonal and non-agricultural guest workers. These workers labor in mostly landscaping, forestry, hotels, seafood processing, restaurants, amusement parks, and construction, National Review points out.

“There is a reason that GOP voters are in open rebellion. They have come to believe that their party’s elites are not only uninterested in defending their interests but — as with this legislation, and fast-tracking the President’s international trade pact — openly hostile to them,” Sessions said.

“The more than 2,000 page year-end funding bill contains a dramatic change to federal immigration law that would increase by as much as four-fold the number of low-wage foreign workers provided to employers under the controversial H-2B visa program, beyond what is currently allowed. These foreign workers are brought in exclusively to fill blue collar non-farm jobs in hotels, restaurants, construction, truck driving, and many other occupations sought by millions of Americans.”

Sessions also criticized the omnibus bill for not providing a measure that would block refugees from entering the United States.

“On top of this provision, the omnibus approves — without conditions — the president’s request for increased refugee admissions, allowing him to bring in as many refugees as he wants, from anywhere he wants, and then allow them to access unlimited amounts of welfare and entitlements at taxpayer expense.”

He added, “This will ensure that at least 170,000 green card, refugee and asylum approvals are issued to migrants from Muslim countries over just the next 12 months.”

Sessions explained that the bill would also fund sanctuary cities and illegal alien resettlement in the United States.

“It allows the President to continue issuing visas to countries that refuse to repatriate violent criminal aliens, and funds the President’s ongoing lawless immigration actions – including his unimpeded 2012 executive amnesty for alien youth,” he said.