MACKINAC ISLAND MICHIGAN--Last fall the H2B program was cut in half by Congress leaving many foreign workers unable to return to their summer jobs at many resorts including Mackinac Island.
The jobs that many foreigners fill are waiting on tables, checking in guests at the various lodging establishments, cleaning bathrooms and handling the horses on the island.
Last fall Congress let an exemption lapse that had allowed some past visa holders to return to their old employers each year.
Even though the requests for visas from employers has mushroomed since 2002 in 1990 the the H2B visas were capped at 66,000 a year.
In 2004 Congress had allowed returning workers to be exempt from the cap. Last year more than 120,000 H2B visas were granted. The exemption expired in Sept. and Congress would not renew it. Among those hurt by the change are ski resorts in Colorado, crabmeat processors in Maryland, hotels on Cape Cod and landscapers in Ohio and Michigan.
As reported in freep.com
"We will weather the storm, but it's very, very difficult to make it work," said Dan Musser, whose family owns Mackinac's iconic Grand Hotel.
Out of the 650 people hired by the Grand Hotel each season about 375 are there on H2B visas. Even though some of them have worked there for decades none of them can return this year.
Musser said,
"It's potentially devastating to all of us seasonal business owners."
Musser is hoping to fill the number of workers that are needed by using two other types of visas. Plus being able to borrow H2B workers from hotels in Arizona, California and Colorado who had managed to get workers under the cap last winter.
Musser added
"The staff that guests have gotten to know over the years are not going to be there, we pride ourselves on service, and this will be a challenge."
Not everyone is sympathetic with those who cannot get foreign workers.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that supports tighter controls on immigration said,
"There's no reason to have H2B visas at all,"
"It's based on the premise that there are jobs Americans won't do. It's absurd. "Employers need to increase wages, change benefits or come up with new ways of recruiting."
The Hispanic caucus in Congress blocked efforts to allow past H2B workers to return this year. They say what is needed is comprehensive immigration reform not just piecemeal fixes.
Bart Stupak a Democratic U.S. Rep. from Menominee Mich. who tried to bring back the exemption for returning workers said
"H2B is a casualty in a bigger war called immigration"
According to Stupak a few weeks ago he did have strong bipartisan support for an immigration measure that did include renewing the provision for returning workers. He said due to presidential candidate John McCain not wanting to vote on it in an election year the Republicans stalled it.
With Michigan's unemployment rate at 7.2% why are they having trouble getting U.S. workers?
What the employers all across the island are saying there are few people who are unemployed that want to relocate to the island to take a job that will only last for half of the year. There is little housing and especially for families. For those who are in high school or college they don't want a summer job waiting tables and cleaning. What they prefer are internships.
Mary McGuire Slevin, director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau said that they need workers who can arrive early and stay late.
The season used to last only June, July and August so students and teachers could be hired.
Now the island has visitors from late April to November. H2B workers can work all of those months but students and teachers are unable to do so.
Students are hired for the peak months but the H2B workers are the ones that open up the hotels in early spring and help close them after Halloween.
Carmen Carla has hired from five to 13 Mexican workers since 2002 for Decra-scape, a landscape firm in Sterling Heights. This year, none of them are allowed to return.
Carla said,
"For people who hire legal workers and follow the rules, we don't think we should get our hands slapped."
