President Bush on Thursday didn’t commit to supporting the extension of a law that sets the number of foreign guest workers that Colorado and other states rely on to staff seasonal businesses.
But he didn’t ignore the question when Cindy Clark, director of human resources at The Broadmoor hotel, raised it in a meeting at the White House between Bush and groups pushing for immigration changes. Also in attendance were Vice President Dick Cheney and political adviser Karl Rove.
The president “didn’t say thumbs up or thumbs down on that,” Clark said afterward.
The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs is part of a Colorado coalition lobbying Congress to extend the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act for three years.
The number of new H-2B visas issued by the government each year is capped at 66,000, which does not include workers who held visas in the previous three years. Colorado employs about 16,000 guest workers, primarily in the hotel, skiing and landscaping industries.
Unless the act were extended, the result could be a shortage in the number of foreign workers available next spring, said Ilene Kamsler, president of the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association.
Bush has been proposing a comprehensive guest-worker program since 2004, but it has been tangled up in the broader immigration debate.
“I took away from the meeting very loud and clear that he was very much in favor of a guest-worker program,” Clark said during a telephone news conference after the meeting at the White House. “I didn’t feel that we were left in limbo. We gave input so that the H-2B program could factor into his thinking when a guest-worker program is developed.
“I think that he was listening and taking in all the information.”
Colorado is one of the nation’s largest employers of foreign seasonal workers.
If Bush had committed to supporting an extension, “that would have been fantastic,” said Kristen Sirovatka Fefes, executive director of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado. “But our expectation is that he would continue to support guest workers and continue to lead the charge, and he said that he would do that.”
During the meeting, Bush urged a serious debate on the issues at a time when advocates on both sides have been playing to voters’ emotions, officials said.
“When we discuss this debate, it must be done in a civil way,” Bush said. “It must be done in a way that brings dignity to the process. It must be done in a way that doesn’t pit people against another.”
Included among the representatives from Colorado in the White House meeting was Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. He supports a temporary-worker program for foreigners.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
