H-2B Remains in Political Deadlock, Fly-In Attendees Say

The H-2B non-immigrant visa program, which many landscape companies depend on for their seasonal staffing needs, is entangled in a game of power politics, H-2B supporters learned this week.

With less than three weeks until Congress recesses for the holidays, more than 400 supporters of the H-2B visa program met with legislators and their staffs in Washington, D.C., this week as part of an “emergency” fly-in organized by Bethesda, Md.-based Save Small Business, a network of small and seasonal business owners who support the H-2B visa program. If Congress does not pass a fix to the H-2B program’s returning-worker exemption, the pool of workers permitted to legally come to the U.S. for seasonal jobs will shrink dramatically. If lawmakers wait until after the first of the year to pass the exemption, it may be too late for landscape industry members to get their workers in time for the start of their busy seasons.

As Fly-In attendees – many of them landscape contractors – scrambled from one appointment to the next on Wednesday, spirits seemed low as the message from many legislators was “our hands are tied.”

“There’s a whole lot of support, but no action,” said Kurt Kluznik, president of Yardmaster, which has locations in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, after exiting a meeting with Sen. George Voinovich's (R-Ohio) counsel.

Kluznik is right; the H-2B returning-worker exemption has bi-partisan, bi-cameral support, with more than 100 House and 30 Senate co-sponsors. But it’s more complicated than just getting co-sponsors, explained Hank Lavery, founder of Save Small Business, during a briefing before Hill visits began. That’s why the group’s message was focused on asking their legislators, especially the ones who already support H-2B, to go to leadership – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – and put pressure on them to accommodate an H-2B fix.

Fly-In attendees tried to stay on message, but there was a lot of passing the buck among legislators and their staff members, said Dana LaQuay, director of communications and governmental relations for the Federation of Employers and Workers of America, an association of employers who participate in legal guest worker programs. Freshman members said they had to wait for senior members to lead the way; Senate staff said the problem was in the House; and others said it might be something they’d look at in the spring – a timeline that would be too late for the landscape industry.

H-2B employers repeatedly heard that pressure from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – 24 Democratic members of Congress who are from Hispanic decent – not to enact any sort of “piecemeal” immigration solutions was one of the main reasons the H-2B fix hasn’t gone through.

“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is for the first time really throwing a wrench in,” LaQuay said. “They don’t want legislators to touch H-2B unless they can get comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act through.” Congress failed to pass a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill this summer and is not expected to do so until well after a new president is elected. The Senate failed in October to gain the necessary votes to advance the DREAM Act, which would allow illegal immigrants in American high schools to be eligible for legal status upon completing an associate’s degree or two years of military service.

“Of all the times I’ve been [to Washington] in 2007, the message this time is not as positive,” LaQuay said. “It’s a tougher situation than I’ve seen before.”

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