PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2015
PRESS CONTACT:
Alissa Escarce, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM)
1-855-234-9699 (U.S.); 01-800-590-1773 (Mexico)
Legislation Threatens Hard-Won Labor Protections for Workers with H-2B Visas
On Friday, October 30, 2015, U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced the Save our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2015. The bill proposes significant changes to the H-2B temporary work visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers, most of them from Mexico, to fill low-wage seasonal jobs in industries such as landscaping, seafood processing and construction. If passed, this legislation would roll back crucial gains for H-2B workers’ rights achieved by migrant rights advocates over the past decade. Among other damaging provisions, the legislation would eliminate the Department of Labor’s (DOL) role in H-2B program oversight, limit employer accountability during the international labor recruitment process and reduce wages and hours for those who travel to the U.S. with H-2B visas. In short, the bill would eliminate the minimal protections in the program and leave H-2B workers more vulnerable than ever to recruitment and workplace abuses. With a decade of experience advocating for H-2B workers’ rights, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) urges members of Congress to oppose the bill and defend hard-won labor protections for internationally recruited workers.
Recent studies by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and by civil society organizations including CDM, Polaris and the Economic Policy Institute have shown H-2B workers to be among the most vulnerable workers in the United States. Workers are recruited in Mexico by a virtually unregulated network of labor recruiters, many of whom charge workers illegal fees and misrepresent the jobs they will take in the United States. H-2B workers often accumulate debts to obtain jobs and travel to U.S. workplaces, are tied by their visa to a specific employer, and are barred from receiving federally funded legal services, making it difficult for them to take action against substandard working conditions. Studies have found that H-2B workers’ wages and working conditions are on par with those of undocumented workers in the U.S., and many fall prey to labor traffickers.
Following years of advocacy by CDM and allies, the DOL and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published new regulations for the H-2B program in April 2015. These regulations have established new, crucial protections for H-2B workers. They create greater transparency in the labor recruitment process to reduce recruitment fraud and illegal fees, guarantee a baseline wage and number of hours for workers who travel to the U.S., and require employers to cover visa and travel fees to prevent workers from falling into debt. The proposed legislation would repeal many of these essential protections and would prohibit DOL, which currently oversees labor rights enforcement, from playing any role in the H-2B visa program. The program would be regulated exclusively by the DHS.
“To remove the Department of Labor from oversight of a temporary work program represents an attack on the labor rights of H-2B workers and, by extension, of the U.S. workers who work alongside them,” said Rachel Micah-Jones, CDM Founder and Executive Director. “If enacted, this bill would be devastating to migrant rights and the H-2B workers and communities CDM has worked with over the past decade.”