U.S. nearly doubles number of temporary work visas, giving hope to Maine hospitality industry

Nov. 18—The federal government is issuing another 65,000 temporary worker visas nationwide, giving Maine businesses an expanded pool of employees to tap for jobs they are struggling to fill, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said Monday.

Visas will be available to 20,000 workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras. Another 44,716 supplemental visas would be available to returning workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years, which begins Oct. 1.

That’s in addition to the congressionally mandated 66,000 H-2B visas that are available each year.

H-2B visas are issued when not not enough U.S. workers are able, willing, qualified and available to do temporary work, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Other conditions require that employing H-2B workers will not adversely affect wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers and that the need for workers is temporary.

During the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 158 businesses in Maine hired a total of 2,718 H-2B workers, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The state ranked No. 25, with Virginia, Texas and Florida topping the list with close to 20,000 H-2B workers each.

“Clearly, there’s a demand and a need,” King said in an interview.

The visas are a lifeline for employers, he said, particularly in the hospitality industry that hires hotel and restaurant workers for Maine’s strong tourism trade. Nationally, other jobs that need to be filled by workers with H-2B visas include construction, amusement and seafood processing.

Maine labor officials reported in April that the state is falling short of reaching its goal of adding 75,000 workers to the labor force over 10 years. It’s increased by 13,400 in three years, and if that pace were to continue, Maine would add fewer than 45,000 employees in a decade.

The state’s leisure and hospitality industry employed 69,200 workers in September, up just 2,000 from the previous year and representing 11% of the workforce, according to the Maine Department of Labor.

Becky Jacobson, executive director of Hospitality Maine, an industry group, said hotels, motels, restaurants, ski centers, logging and other businesses are struggling with a paucity of local workers. “Any increase in visas is a bonus and greatly appreciated,” she said.

Workers are needed in a host of jobs, from a hotel’s front desk to room cleaners, landscapers, restaurant wait staff, cooks and other jobs, Jacobson said. Although many industry staff shortages can be traced to COVID-19, the hospitality industry’s troubles predate the pandemic, she said.

“There’s just not enough people for jobs,” she said.

Jacobson said businesses spend significant sums on firms that specialize in helping with the application process for H2-B visas. “They must have a strong vested interest in getting workers,” she said of employers.

King, acknowledging that immigration is a potent political issue, said the temporary work visas extending for several months is an “entirely separate issue” from illegal immigration from Latin America that became a flashpoint in this year’s presidential and congressional elections.

“I’m hoping the new administration will see it this way, but I’m not convinced,” said King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s a straight-up economic development issue.”

President-elect Donald Trump made immigration a central part of each of his three campaigns.

During Trump’s previous term, congressional delegates from Maine and other states — and both political parties — fought annually with his administration to temporarily increase the visa cap.

King and Collins said they have “consistently pushed” the departments of Homeland Security and Labor to increase the availability of H-2B visas. They successfully urged the agencies in 2022 to release the maximum number of H-2B visas, marking the first time the agencies issued a rule making H-2B supplemental visas available for several allocations throughout the year.

The cap on these visas has been raised many times — by 15,000 in 2017 and 2018, 30,000 in 2019, 22,000 in 2021, 55,000 in 2022 and 64,716 in 2023 and 2024, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Employers are required by law to first make a “concerted effort” to hire U.S. workers to fill open positions, according to the federal government. H-2B visas help U.S. small businesses when too few able and willing domestic workers are available to fill the temporary, seasonal positions.

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