U.S. senators are once again pushing legislation that would exempt temporary migrant seafood workers from counting against the national cap for H2-B visas, ensuring the industry can hire the seasonal workforce it needs.
“Virginia’s seafood industry relies on seasonal, H2-B workers to help meet demand during peak season,” U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said in a statement. “Without this workforce, many of Virginia’s seafood processors would simply have to close up shop.”
Seafood processors rely on temporary migrant laborers to fill out their seasonal workforce; however, processors must compete against other industries to secure the H2-B visas they need. The U.S. government caps the national number of H2-B visas at 66,000, and while the government is authorized to double the amount of visas available – and it frequently does so – the seafood industry still struggles to secure as many visas as it needs.
“Our fourth-generation family crab-processing facility in Hampton, [Virginia], continues to struggle to keep our doors open! The H-2B program has been our lifeline the last 30 years, and without congressional help, we will perish,” Graham & Rollins President John Graham III said in a statement. “The current lottery system currently deployed by Homeland Security is not feasible to sustain any kind of business and frankly is a disaster!”
Without H2-B workers, seafood processors from Alaska to Maryland are likely to struggle.
“Since 1989, Maryland Seafood Processors have used and depended on the H-2B non-agricultural seasonal visa work program to staff these traditional seasonal jobs. These hardworking people who come to Maryland every season under this very important program support thousands of jobs of American citizens and small seafood businesses around Maryland's Chesapeake Bay that also support seafood processors,” Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association President Jack Brooks said in a statement. “Due to the scarcity of H-2B visas, Maryland has lost more than 40 of its seafood processing companies, located mostly in rural areas around the Bay, since the 1990s – and now we have fewer than a dozen left.”
To remove the scarcity around H2-B visas, senators have reintroduced the Save Our Seafood Act, legislation that would exempt seafood processors from the H2-B cap, essentially allowing them to secure the visas they need without having to depend on the annual visa lottery.
“Alaska’s seafood industry is a delicate chain – and when processors don’t have the workforce to meet demand, the whole industry can fall apart,” U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “Coastal communities, family-owned fishing boats, and Alaskans who work in the industry need to know that they have fully-functioning operations where they can deliver their catch. Through this legislation, I’m working to ensure that the industry has a dependable workforce that can process and deliver the highest-quality seafood in the world.”
Senators pushed an earlier version of the legislation during the last Congress, but it was never voted on by the Senate.
