Deutch urges probe of guest worker visa program, saying it costs U.S. workers jobs

[Sandra]

Deutch urges probe of guest worker visa program, saying it costs U.S. workers jobs

By John Lantigua

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 8:33 p.m. Thursday, July 21, 2011


 
Boca Raton Congressman Ted Deutch is calling for the U.S. Labor secretary to investigate a work visa program that he says allows hundreds of foreigners to take hospitality jobs at the expense of qualified Americans.

Deutch, a Democrat, wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Wednesday, asking her to investigate her department's H-2B visa program, which has allowed local resorts and country clubs to import the foreign workers, while the county suffers unemployment of over 10 percent.

At the same time, Republican Congressman Allen West of Plantation, in a letter to the leader of a Palm Beach County Hispanic organization, defended the rights of the hospitality employers to import the workers under the current guidelines and decried government interference with business.

Deutch's letter followed a series of articles in The Palm Beach Post, which revealed that in the past year resorts and country clubs in the country were approved for 1,552 H-2B visas for seasonal positions such as housekeepers, waiters, cooks, kitchen assistants and recreation facility assistants. The county's Workforce Alliance, the agency that helps local residents find work, says it has 2,600 persons on its rolls looking for such positions.

"Palm Beach County leads Florida in the number of authorized foreign workers" despite high unemployment, Deutch wrote to Solis.

"In South Florida, many of the hospitality, restaurant and resort industry jobs covered by the H-2B visa program last anywhere from seven to ten months. With so many Floridians out of work, there is no question that many of these positions would be attractive to local residents," he wrote.

Deutch called "simply inadequate" the requirements that employers post ads for such jobs in a local newspaper for two days per year and on the state's employment website, EmployFlorida.com, for 10 days.

In its coverage The Post compared ads placed for those jobs in local papers with ads placed on websites overseas for the same positions. Deutch called the local ads "perfunctory, nondescript," while ads placed on foreign websites were "extravagant and descriptive."

He said he recognized that local hospitality employers, trying to fill their staffs for their busy season, which begins in October, faced "unique challenges." They advertise those jobs locally starting in May and June, which leaves them time to contract H2B workers overseas.

"What steps can be taken to have employers advertise job openings closer to the start of the job and still afford the employer enough time to complete H2B visa applications if necessary?" Deutch asked Solis. He also asked her what could be done to make ads used for such jobs in the U.S. and overseas more similar.

West, meanwhile, took the opposing position, in a letter July 14 to Jorge Avellana, executive director of the Hispanic Human Resources Council of Palm Beach County. Avellana had written to West June 15 decrying the use of H2B visas.

"It is not the federal government's role to mandate the hiring practices of private businesses, as long as they are not employing illegal aliens and breaking the law," West responded in his letter, which was make available to The Post.

"The H-2B visa program is strictly for temporary seasonal workers and employers can only utilize it after they have done extensive recruiting locally without success," West wrote. "It is a program to keep seasonal businesses, many of which are located in South Florida, operating."

But leaders in minority communities, including Avellana, claim that local employers do not seriously look for local workers, because in the long run guest workers are cheaper to employ.

Officials at Workforce Alliance also say few employers in the hospitality industry have worked with them to find local residents to fill the jobs. And the Labor Department is reviewing the H-2B program, after finding that it does not do enough to protect U. S. workers from losing their jobs to guest workers.

West's letter to Avellana continued: "My main focus in the House of Representatives is to set the conditions for economic growth that will create jobs and lower unemployment for all Americans," West said. He said local business owners had told him what government needs to do is "lower the burden of federal regulation."

Avellana took issue with that statement and West's position on the issue in general.

"He says the government shouldn't mandate who an employer hires, but when government officials voted to allow those foreign guest workers, they were intervening so that local workers (do) not get those jobs," Avellana said. "His position is costing local people jobs and not creating jobs the way he says."

West did not respond to requests for further comment.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/deutch-urges-probe-of-guest-worker-visa-program-1632886.html?cxtype=rss_state

Poll results...

Do you think the guest worker visa program costs U.S. workers jobs?

• Yes

  
  
  89.47% 17
  
  

• No

  
  
  10.53% 2
  
  

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