Politico: Trump Administration to Allow for 15,000 More Foreign Workers

The US departments of Homeland Security and Labor have announced that they will issue up to 15,000 additional H-2B visas for temporary, non-agricultural workers this year. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly explained the decision to increase the Congressionally-approved cap of 66,000 H-2B visas per year as a supply-and-demand problem: “there are not enough qualified and willing US workers available” to meet the demands of American businesses. Over two-thirds of those using the H-2B visas last year were from Mexico, and most commonly work in industries such as landscaping, housekeeping and forestry. Concern for business owners’ bottom lines may have superseded, or “at least contrast[s] with the president’s regular campaign-trail refrain that his White House would advocate in favor of ‘Buy American, Hire American’ practices,” notes Louis Nelson for Politico. —YaleGlobal