March 9, 2020

The Honorable Chad F. Wolf
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security 
3801 Nebraska Avenue, NW 
Washington, DC 20528                                

Dear Acting Secretary Wolf:

As representatives of small and seasonal employers throughout the country, the H-2B Workforce Coalition urges you to promptly release a temporary final rule to implement the 35,000 supplemental H-2B visas that were announced on March 5.  We would also like to request some proposed refinements related to visa availability.

While the coalition and our members appreciate that 35,000 visas marks the highest number of supplemental visas that the Administration has chosen to release over the past few years, the number still fell far short of the actual economic need for temporary seasonal workers. 

Read entire letter here

We are currently working with DHS, DOL, OMB etc. to allow for all employers with a valid labor certification to access the full complement of 35,000 visas. We are told the rule has yet to be finalized and there is still time to make technical changes. I will keep you posted on our progress and the status of the rule.

In the meantime, it is time for us to put some heat on the Administration. For those of you who supported President Trump in 2016 and continue to support him, you must let him know that you feel abandoned and that he is in danger of losing your support. You can't support him if you are no longer in business! The Administration only considers our opponents members of his base but not seasonal business owners. We have to get the message across that you are members of his base. Examples:

@realDonaldTrump, you understand the difficulty with hiring temporary labor as a seasonal business owner yet you sign off on a proposal that will only help a third of us? You have abandoned your blue collar, small business owning supporters. Please fix this by immediately releasing the remaining 30,000 #H2B visas.
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