Job Growth Should Be Dividend for American Workers, Not Justification to Expand Foreign Worker Visas, Says FAIR

(March 29, 2019, Washington, D.C.) — The following statement regarding the Trump administration’s decision to provide a massive increase in the number of H-2B foreign worker visas should be attributed to Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR):

“While Congress shoulders much of the blame for inexplicably authorizing an H-2B visa increase in the first place, the decision to actually go through with one was squarely in the hands of the Trump administration. Yet when given the opportunity to stand with the American worker, President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen capitulated to the self-serving demands of business lobbyists and authorized 30,000 additional visas. While the economy is certainly roaring, it does not need a vast infusion of guest workers.

“This decision to allow tens of thousands more foreign workers to flood the labor market this year will not only suppress blue-collar wage growth but also take away opportunities from Americans trying to get back into the labor force.

“It begs the question – does anyone in this administration, including the president himself, still care about American workers who have been hit hard by mass immigration? Every word out of the president’s mouth lately seems to be that we need more foreign workers, yet one of this administration’s very first initiatives was to “Buy American, Hire American.” How ironic.

“An improving economy with thousands of new jobs can tighten the labor market, increase wages, and put Americans back to work. We’ve waited a long time for the stars to align, yet this opportunity is being squandered by influential business interests and negative forces within the administration, addicted to cheap foreign labor. This cycle of growth and subsequent flooding of the labor market has to stop. It is antithetical to the goal, promised to us by the Trump administration, of putting Americans first.

“FAIR has long maintained that H-2B visas are nothing more than a handout to businesses so they don’t have to compete for workers and raise wages. Businesses dependent on H-2B workers don’t know how to operate in a tight labor market and President Trump just bailed them out.”

Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004