DEMOCRATS, Republicans, and restaurant owners all agree: The country needs more of the H-2B visas that allow immigrants to come here as seasonal workers. Among other things, these workers help provide food and shelter for the summer crowds on Cape Cod.
It's a local example of how badly the country needs immigration reform.
Earlier this week, Cape businessman Bill Zammer testified in Congress before the House judiciary subcommittee on immigration. "I am here today," he said in written testimony, "to urge you, better yet beg you" to free up more visas. Zammer runs four restaurants on the Cape and hires 100 H-2B workers. He and other Cape business owners have been searching for workers, appealing to local retirees and city residents, but they still can't fill all their openings.
This cry for more seasonal workers echoes around the country, from ski resorts in Colorado to Maryland companies seeking crab pickers to landscapers in Texas. The problem is an annual cap that dates to 1991 and limits the number of H-2B visas to 66,000. A 2005 law provided temporary relief by declaring that returning seasonal workers would not count against the cap. This meant thousands of returning workers in additon to 66,000 others.
This provision was supposed to become permanent when Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform. But last year, that effort failed miserably.
Now members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus don't want to renew the returning worker provision, arguing that rather than settling for pieces of reform, Congress should be hashing out a comprehensive bill.
Their goal is laudable. But the country can't afford to take seasonal businesses as hostages. In the short term, Congress should bypass the visa cap. Otherwise the public and the economy will suffer, all the way from Cape Cod to Colorado.
