U.S. to admit more temporary workers for seafood processors

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have approved issuing 35,000 more H-2B temporary worker visas for nonfarm employees, a move aimed largely to help seafood processors.

They’ll be admitted to work here through September 30.

The move comes after Sen. Mark Warner met Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas last week to press the issue.

“Every year, my office hears from seafood businesses about how difficult it is to find and hire workers in an industry with incredibly demanding but temporary jobs like processing crabs and shucking oysters,” Warner said

“These businesses — often small and family-owned — live in a constant state of worry, unsure whether they’ll have to cancel contracts because they can’t get the workers that they need,” he said.

Warner was joined in campaigning for more seafood processing visas by Sen. Tim Kaine and Maryland Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen.

“Seafood businesses play an invaluable role in so many of Virginia’s local coastal economies” and the visa decision “will help these businesses hire the staff they need,” Kaine said.

The H-2B visa program allows employers to hire seasonal, non-immigrant workers during peak seasons to supplement the existing American workforce. In order to be eligible for the program, employers must show there are not enough U.S. workers available to do the temporary work.

Virginia seafood firms have long-standing relationships with their temporary workers, sometimes stretching back over more than a generation.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com