President Trump Pushes for More Foreign Guest Workers, H2-Bs, Migrant Farm Workers at Michigan Rally

Associated Press

by John Binder28 Apr 20180

28 Apr, 2018 28 Apr, 2018

During a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday, President Trump pushed for more foreign workers to be imported to the United States to work blue collar jobs.

As Breitbart News reports, Trump said:

And for the farmers, okay, it’s going to get good. And we’re going to let your guest workers come in because we’re going to have strong borders, but we have to have your workers come in. You know, the unemployment picture is so good, it’s so strong that we have to let people come in. They’re going to be guest workers, they’re going to come in, they’re going to work on your farms, we’re going to have the H-2Bs come in, we’re going to have a lot of things happening but then they have to go out. Then they have to go out. But, we’re going to let them in, ‘cause you need them. You need them. [Emphasis added]

…

We need people to be able to come into our country, do your jobs, help you on the farms, and then they go out, they’re going to leave. Guest workers, we’re going to take care of that. Guest workers. Don’t we agree? We have to have them. We have to have them. [Emphasis added]

The H-2B visa brings foreign nationals to the U.S. for low-skilled nonagricultural jobs, as Breitbart News has previously reported. The visa impacts working-class and poor Americans most, as labor jobs in the hotel industry, water parks, retail stores, and restaurants can all be outsourced to foreign workers under the program. Foreign workers using H-2B visas took roughly half a million jobs in the U.S. during the last five years.

Trump’s promotion of more imported foreign workers to the U.S. using the H-2B visa comes as the Republican-controlled Congress has allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to import potentially 130,000 foreign workers for the big business lobby. Trump, in signing the spending measure, gives DHS the authority to import more foreign workers, should DHS Secretary Nielsen choose to do so.

Nielsen, who worked for former President George W. Bush, has already suggested that she will allow big business to import more foreign workers, as Breitbart News reported.

“The concept of limitations on H-2B [visas] originally were to protect American workers,” Nielsen said weeks ago. “If, however, we are in a situation where the way in which we administer the program, legally, actually puts American businesses out of business, that clearly is not the intent.”

If the H-2B visa is expanded this year by Trump’s DHS, it will be the second year in a row that the Trump administration imported more seasonal foreign workers despite his “Buy American, Hire American” agenda.

As Breitbart News has reported, the H-2B visa — like other mass migration programs that import foreign workers to take U.S. jobs — has contributed to stagnant and even reduced wages for America’s working class.

Wage Data: Businesses Using H-2B Visa as Cheap, Foreign Labor Program https://t.co/ENWKO7iPDq

— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) November 1, 2017

Analysis of the H-2B visa and its impact on U.S. wages reveals the gap between what foreign workers are offered for U.S. jobs versus what Americans are paid to do the same work.

Overall, in eight of the ten occupations analyzed, where H-2B foreign workers are brought to the U.S., employers offered the foreign workers lower wages, further solidifying pro-American workers’ groups claims that foreign worker visa programs are used by businesses to import and outsource U.S. jobs to a cheaper, foreign workforce.

• H-2B foreign workers in landscaping were offered nearly 7.5 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in forest and conservation jobs were offered nearly 24 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in housekeeping jobs were offered nearly 6 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in recreation jobs were offered nearly 14 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in meat and fish cutting jobs were offered nearly 19 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in construction were offered more than 20 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in counter attending jobs were offered more than 6 percent less pay
• H-2B foreign workers in labor and moving jobs were offered nearly 4 percent less pay

Further research by the Economic Policy Institute has shown how wages in the top 15 H-2B jobs in the U.S. have been stagnant or slightly decreased over the last decade, as Breitbart News reported.