2007 Legislative Rally Recaps

Two National H-2B Legislative Rallies and H-2B Seminars (East & West) were recently held in Colorado and New Jersey to allow FEWA members and the H-2B stakeholder communities to gather for a day long educational seminar and H-2B cap relief legislative rally.  The guest speakers at both venues were able to provide information that focused on changes from the regulatory agencies involved in the process, pending legislation, compliance on I-9 forms and techniques when interacting with elected officials.

Quarries, masons, landscapers, ski resorts, restaurants, hotels and many other businesses joined with various trade associations on July 24 in Denver and August 7 in Newark respectively.  Those in attendance heard from Mr. Shawn McBurney, Sr. V.P. of Governmental Affairs, National Hotel & Lodging Association and Co-chair for the H-2B Workforce Coalition.  McBurney gave a prospective starting with history of the H-2B program and moved forward to the FY 2006 creation of the exemption for returning workers to not be included in the annual cap of 66,000 visas.  Mr. Dana LaQuay, Director of Communications and Governmental Relations, Federation of Employers and Workers of America (FEWA) teamed up with McBurney and Ms. Montserrat Miller, Immigration Attorney, (Greenberg Traurig, and Steering Committee member for the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition -EWIC) to bring to light the looming possibility that the returning worker exemption will not be revitalized for FY 2008 unless legislation is passed soon.  McBurney reminded the attendees that if legislation is not passed to address this concern, then the exemption will sunset on September 30, 2007.

Because of continual H-2B program growth and the desperate need for workers to be able to take on jobs that are going unfilled by U.S. domestic workers, the annual cap of 66,000 H-2B visas is no longer an option for the program to be accessible to employers.  LaQuay informed the audience of two pieces of legislation that will provide a “fix” on this issue and up coming events to gain much needed support for these bills; Senate Bill 988 and House of Representative Bill 1843.  S 988 would allow another five (5) years to be tacked onto the exemption and H.R. 1843 would allow the exemption to continue without a specific year attached.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was present with Mrs. Hiroko Witherow, Adjudications Officer which reviewed the role of the USCIS as one of the three federal government regulatory agencies involved in the H-2B process. Mr. Corky Kyle, President, The Kyle Group spoke to the group about getting involved to get legislation passed.  Ms. Ann Allott and Ms. Melanie Corrin, spoke about the importance of I-9 compliance as the federal government escalates employer enforcement, both are Immigration Attorneys and I-9 experts with Allott Immigration Law Firm.  Mrs. Vandra Dagles, H.R. Director, Champlain Stone, Ltd., sits on the Executive Committee for the New York Employers for Immigration Reform explained how she has energized her Congressmen to get H2B relief.

The Denver seminar featured an additional presentation as Ms. Tamar Jacoby, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute, spoke about the need for true comprehensive immigration reform   Ms. Jacoby discussed what each and every business owner needs to do in the future in order to move immigration reform.  Jacoby provided an overview of grassroots efforts on immigration reform throughout different parts of the U.S.  She has been instrumental in the creation of state “Employers for Immigration Reform” (EIR) groups in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New York, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and others are in the works for Ohio, Oklahoma and New Jersey.  These EIR groups are supporting the DC based EWIC organization and have become quite involved in state legislative activities.  Now with the big picture of immigration reform being forced to the sidelines, instead of having one federal policy to follow, over 1,500 pieces of legislation from local municipalities and state governments are either passing or attempting to pass items that contain immigration language in the legislation.  These State and local Immigration laws are creating an environment that is not conducive for businesses that are following the letter of the law and having a huge negative impact on the U.S. economy.

The two National Legislative Rallies and H-2B Seminars provided the attendees a great deal of information that they can use in their business and to help achieve H-2B Cap relief legislation.  Educational seminars of this type are part of an on-going effort by FEWA to assist other associations and individual H-2B business owners to get actively involved with federal elected officials, and gaining clarity of the guidelines, policies and procedures created by regulatory agencies connected to the H-2B program.  Further, the seminar provided employers practical information about best practices to protect a more profitable bottom line.