A recently expired H-2B visa exemption that Maryland crab processors and other businesses relied on to hire foreign seasonal workers should be addressed as part of "comprehensive immigration reform," not renewed on its own, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said yester- day.
Businesses hire workers with H-2B visas for jobs that last only part of the year, such as picking meat from crabs or mowing grass.
But the federal government caps the number of visas it will issue, and local landscapers and seafood processors say they won't be permitted to apply for workers until their seasons have already started.
The exemption allowed businesses to bypass the cap by hiring workers who had received the visas in the past. It expired at the end of last month.
Gutierrez, visiting the Port of Baltimore yesterday to talk about trade agreements, said in response to questions that immigration issues -- including guest-worker programs -- should not be dealt with piecemeal. Congress tried and failed to overhaul immigration laws earlier this year. "Everyone has a specific issue that they'd like to have addressed," he said. "That's why we need a comprehensive solution. We're not going to get away from that reality."
But that message didn't please business owners who rely on workers who use the visas.
In an interview, Jack Brooks, president of Eastern Shore crab picking house J.M. Clayton Co., said he'll go out of business next year if he can't once again get the foreign workers who come for the season and return home afterward. Watermen who sell crabs to him and others in the supply chain will be hurt as well, he said. He thinks comprehensive immigration reform will come too late for him.
"It's not going to happen in time," said Brooks, who employs 120 during the picking season, about 75 of whom come on H-2B visas.
Landscapers held a news conference in Glen Burnie yesterday to lobby for a bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, that would permanently renew the federal exemption for returning workers.
"If this bill doesn't go through, then we'll all be out of business," said Chuck Saine, president of C.S. Lawn & Landscape Inc. in Davidsonville.
A spokeswoman for the Maryland Democratic senator said she would continue pushing for the change.
"Senator Mikulski wanted to see us move comprehensive immigration reform as well -- which is why Democrats tried twice this year but were blocked by Senate Republicans," said Melissa Schwartz, the spokeswoman, in response to Gutierrez's comments.
