By Ben Fox, Associated Press — Tuesday 20 April 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration announced an increase Tuesday in the number of temporary seasonal workers to be allowed to work in the US this year, as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Homeland Security said the US would approve an additional 22,000 H-2B seasonal, non-agricultural worker visas on top of the annual congressional limit of 66,000, citing increased demand from employers as the economy rebounds. The H-2B programme has bipartisan support and is used to fill jobs in landscaping, construction, hotels and restaurants, seafood and meat processing, and amusement parks.
Of the additional visas, 6,000 will be set aside for people from the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where long-standing economic and social problems deteriorated further due to the pandemic and two hurricanes that struck the region. People from these three countries made up nearly half of the migrants apprehended at the US southwest border last month, representing an early test for the Biden administration. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said setting aside visas for Central Americans reflects the administration’s goal of “expanding lawful pathways for opportunity in the United States.”
Employers must demonstrate they tried to recruit US workers first and certify they will suffer irreparable harm without a foreign seasonal worker in order to qualify. Former President Trump had last year authorized an additional 35,000 H-2B visas above the cap, before later halting foreign worker programmes under an executive order to preserve US jobs during the pandemic. Biden let that order expire.