WaPo Drums Up ‘Labor Shortage’ in Push for More Foreign Workers

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The Washington Post is drumming up hysteria over an American labor shortage if the H-2B foreign guest worker visa is limited by the Trump Administration, despite no evidence indicating a crunch.

In a piece chronicling a low-skilled worker in the U.S. on an H-2B visa, the Post pleads for the expansion of the program, with language already in a House-passed omnibus spending bill that would do the same.

The H-2B visa brings more than 66,000 foreign nationals to the U.S. for low-skilled, nonagricultural jobs each year. The visa impacts the working-class and poor most in the hospitality industry, entertainment venues, retail, and restaurants. More than half a million jobs in the U.S. have been filled by H-2B visa workers in the last five years.

The open borders lobby and The Washington Post piece drums on about a labor shortage if any changes are made to the H-2B visa:

The country’s $25 billion dollar horse racing industry relies on a majority Hispanic immigrant workforce. Many, like Julio, are in the United States on visas, but others are here illegally, working at racetracks and barns throughout the country. But this year, fear and uncertainty have swept through the industry as the Trump administration has cracked down on immigration, increasing raids and deportations of undocumented immigrants and limiting visa programs.

The policies could have a significant impact on the racing industry, and many employed in it. Without enough visas, horse trainers would face a labor shortage, which could force them to either hire more immigrants illegally or slow down their operations.

Under an expansion of the H-2B visa currently included in the omnibus spending bill, the number of low-skilled foreign workers entering the U.S. could increase by 20,000.

The lengthy, complicated process of the H-2B visa, which is often riddled with fraud and abuse, is good business for immigration lawyers, as The Washington Post piece gleefully notes.

Claims of labor shortage are regularly pushed by the mainstream media, the open borders lobby and big business interests whose profit margins can rise from insourcing jobs.

In a recent report by Breitbart Texas, American unemployment rolls and stagnant, often decreased, wages for low-skilled workers in the U.S. indicate there is no such labor shortage, according to experts.

“Despite such claims from industry groups—other than employer anecdotes—no credible data or labor market metrics have been presented by non-employer-affiliated groups or organizations—let alone by disinterested academics—proving the existence of labor shortages in H-2B occupations that could justify a large expansion of the H-2B program,” the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) wrote in a recent analysis report.

There are 1.37 million “missing workers” in the American labor force between the ages of 45 and 74-years-old. These individuals are not included in the monthly unemployment rate, but if they were, the unemployment rate would be 5.3 percent, according to EPI.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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