As Congress wrestles with illegal immigration, an existing program that allows thousands of foreign workers to enter the U.S. legally to fill seasonal jobs in Colorado’s tourism, service and landscaping industries is in danger of expiring because of a legislative logjam.
A three-year extension of the H-2B visa program (set to expire Sept. 30) was attached to the Senate immigration bill that stalled before Congress adjourned. The program is capped at 66,000 non-skilled, non-agricultural workers who receive visas to work in such industries as resorts, landscaping, timber, mining and seafood.
The seasonal hands are critical to this state’s economy, according to Ilene Kamsler, president of the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association. Carefully sidestepping the debate on undocumented immigrants, she emphasized, “They’re temporary workers with visas – they’re not illegal.” In Colorado alone, these workers fill about 80,000 jobs (workers returning to jobs they’ve held previously don’t count against the cap). About one-fourth of the all the H-2B visas are issued to people who work in Colorado, Kamsler said. Seasonal employees clean rooms or work in food service at ski resorts, for example.
Many workers are from Latin America, and often members of an extended family will work at specific jobs, such as installing sprinkler systems or maintaining yards. Employers have long-standing relationships with the temporary workers who return year after year, according to Kristen Sirovatka Fefes, executive director of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., is pushing for extension of the H-2B program, which provides workers for her state’s crab industry. Spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz says Mikulski will “fight in the coming months to find a legislative vehicle she can make H-2B a part of, if immigration reform fails.”
The H-2B program enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate, Schwartz said, and the one-year extension passed in 2005 did so by a wide margin. Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who voted for the previous extension, still support the visas, according to their offices.
Kamsler gives the extension “a decent chance of passing” because it’s a renewal of an existing program.
H-2B workers are important to Colorado’s economy. This useful program shouldn’t get sidetracked by the bellicose rhetoric of the illegal immigration debate.
