In a letter Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., urged President Donald Trump to "suspend all new guest worker visas for sixty days," saying out-of-work Americans need the jobs the foreigners would otherwise fill.
The lawmaker from Dardanelle asked Trump to suspend some guest-worker visa categories "for at least the next year, or until employment has returned to normal levels."
"Exceptions to this suspension should be rare, limited to time-sensitive industries such as agriculture, and issued only on a case-by-case basis when the employer can demonstrate that they have been unable to find Americans to take the jobs," he wrote.
The letter, which was crafted by Cotton, was signed by three other Trump allies: U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
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The president has portrayed economic damage from the coronavirus as a short-term setback, tweeting on April 8: "Once we open up our great country, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten. Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!"
In their letter, the senators predicted a slow and painful road ahead.
"The coronavirus pandemic has wrought terrible damage on our country, and we will likely continue to experience the economic effects of social distancing and shutdown measures for years to come," they wrote. "As we work toward recovery, we urge you to keep the American worker in mind and limit the importation of unnecessary guest workers while American families and businesses get back on their feet."
With tens of millions of Americans no longer employed, the White House is attempting to limit the number of foreign workers coming into the country.
On April 22, Trump signed an executive order suspending immigration to the United States for 60 days. But the order carved out exceptions for temporary guest workers, health care professionals, members of the U.S. military and their families as well as refugees.
While expressing support for the immigration curbs, the senators said temporary guest workers "remain a serious threat to the U.S. labor market's recovery."
The senators urged the president to immediately suspend the EB-5 visa program, which provides an immigration fast-track for foreign investors. The program, they wrote, "has long been plagued by scandal and fraud, and has been criticized as effectively functioning as a pay-for-citizenship scheme in many cases."
They also asked him to suspend the Optional Practical Training program, which allows foreign students to remain and work in the United States for up to three years after graduation.
"Appropriate exceptions" could be made for foreign health care workers willing to battle the pandemic, they added.
Cotton's calls for changes to the guest-worker program predate the arrival of the coronavirus.
He has frequently criticized the H1B visa program, which allows foreigners to take jobs in "specialty occupations," including science, technology, engineering and banking work.
Given the rapid economic downturn, Cotton said all guest worker programs should be scrutinized.
"We've had 33 million Americans lose their job in the last seven weeks," he said. "That means that one out of every five Americans who had a job in early February is now out of work. And that doesn't even count the millions more who have seen their pay or their hours reduced. Until we can get those Americans back into the work force and get the economy back on its feet, we ought not to continue to import millions of lower paid immigrant guest workers to compete for their jobs."
The U.S. granted 188,123 H1B visas in fiscal 2019. Another 204,801 H2A visas were awarded for temporary agricultural employment, according to the U.S. State Department. In addition, the federal government granted 97,623 H2B visas for temporary non-agricultural work.
Businesses that rely on guest workers would be hit hard by sudden changes to the system, critics warn.
In a text message, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Randy Zook said suspension of guest-worker visas is a "complex issue that needs careful consideration."
"We oppose any simplistic approach," he wrote.
Max Braswell, executive vice president of the Arkansas Forestry Association, said continuation of the H2B visa program is a priority for the forest industry.
"We've consistently communicated how important access to those workers is," he said.
The guest workers who plant seedlings aren't displacing American workers, he said.
"That is the easiest argument to make and it is the least valid argument to make," he said. "If we could be successful hiring American workers, folks from our local community, absolutely, that would be the first priority."
A suspension of new guest-worker visas also would pose problems for farmers, according to Jessica Burkham, the Arkansas Farm Bureau's director of policy development and legislative research.
In recent years, it's been tough to fill agriculture jobs, she said.
"It's dirty. It's hot. You have to do this work in the most unflattering weather conditions imaginable," she said. "No one wants to pick tomatoes when it's 120 degrees out in July in southern Arkansas."
Temporary workers from Mexico, South Africa and elsewhere have filled that void, she said.
Farmers have to spend a lot of money and clear a lot of bureaucratic hurdles in order secure this workforce, she noted.
"Our farmers were and continue to be extremely dependent on H2A workers," she said. "They need a reliable and consistent workforce and, unfortunately, they don't have that domestically in the United States."
While Cotton said exceptions could be made for guest workers in "critical industries" where companies have demonstrated there are no Americans ready to take the jobs, he predicted there will be "a pretty large pool of Americans" willing to do the work.
"This season will be very different from any prior season because there are so many unemployed persons in every community. This virus and the economic impact is not limited to particular regions or states or even towns," he said.
Although the economic erosion has been rapid, the recovery may take time, Cotton warned.
"I hope that the economy can get back on its feet very rapidly and I hope that all those people who lost their jobs will be back in the workplace as soon as possible, but I think we need to be prepared that it could be months, not weeks, that we have double digit unemployment," he said. "In the meantime we should suspend all of these temporary guest worker programs that will simply make it harder for Americans to get back to work full-time."
Metro on 05/08/2020