Andy Harris Secures H-2B Visa Surge, Seeks Priority for Longtime Users

Overview

• Department of Homeland Security will issue about 65,000 H-2B seasonal work visas this year after Harris pressed the White House, roughly 30,000 more than first planned.
• Harris is drafting “certified employer” language for DHS funding bills that would guarantee returning H-2B employers slots outside the annual lottery.
• The H-2B program covers short-term nonfarm jobs such as crab processing, and Maryland seafood plants now rely on Mexican workers to hand-pick blue crab meat after local labor dried up.
• Right-wing figures including Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller attacked the expansion as a break with Trump’s agenda, while the Laborers’ International Union warned more visas could depress wages.
• Harris is also working with senators on the DIGNIDAD Act, which revives a past policy to exempt returning H-2B workers from the annual cap, echoing a Maryland-backed approach once ended early in Trump’s first term.