H-2B visas on hold

DHS halts plan to issue 35,000 extra guest worker visas amid massive unemployment claims

In a big win for American workers, especially those who are most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trump Administration announced on Thursday that it was putting on hold a plan to issue 35,000 additional H-2B visas this spring to low-skilled foreign workers.

The move was a result, in part, of your tremendous activism efforts. NumbersUSA activists flooded the White House with messages, urging Pres. Trump to put the additional H-2B visas on hold.

Adding to the onslaught, on Wednesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson unloaded on DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf for siding with Corporate America over the interests of American workers by moving forward with the extra visas.

Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has used his discretionary powers to add 35,000 extra visas. That's a total of 100,000 extra workers coming to this country to take jobs during the single biggest unemployment crisis in a century. It's demented. [NumbersUSA]

--Tucker Carlson, April 1, 2020

You can watch Tucker Carlson's full segment by clicking here

Illegal alien charged with 18 deaths; Could be up to an additional 732 victims

Breitbart News exclusively reported that Chemirmir first arrived in the U.S. on a B-2 visa — commonly known as a tourist visa — in July 2003. Though Chemirmir was supposed to only temporarily be in the U.S., he overstayed his visa and became an illegal alien who was eligible for deportation. Rather than being deported, Chemirmir was able to use a loophole in the country’s legal immigration system that allowed him to obtain a green card after marrying a U.S. citizen.


This, of course, is the absolute worse case scenario of an illegal living among us. He over-stayed his tourist visa (like millions do) and ended up marrying a citizen. Democrats, change the laws.

Build the wall.

Stop these criminals

Davis-Oliver Act

President Trump is moving forward on immigration in spite of Democrats blocking his way on building the wall--

The Davis-Oliver Act would call for the hiring of over 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, broaden the definition of sanctuary cities to include those that don’t comply with immigration detainers, strip certain grants from those jurisdictions, and allow local law enforcement personnel to create and enforce immigration law consistent with federal law.

Being in the country illegally is currently a civil offense, but the legislation would make this a crime punishable by jail time. The Davis-Oliver Act would also make all immigrants in criminal street gangs deportable, and punish countries that don’t cooperate with deportation proceedings. The legislation will make drunk driving a deportable offense, and additionally increase penalties for immigration-related crimes such as passport fraud. [Daily Caller]

Read bill S 1640

Read more on the Act

Immigration Numbers and the RAISE Act

As Mark Krikorian from the Center for Immigration Studies wrote in his column, Trump needs to listen less to Big Business and more to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who introduced the RAISE Act, which would reduce legal immigration by up to 50% by eliminating the visa lottery and ending chain migration.

Sen. Cotton was the only Member of Congress to speak out on the Senate floor last week against the omnibus spending bill that doubled the number of H-2B guest worker visas. Sen. Cotton said that Congress ignored the lessons of the 2016 election and is out of touch with the American people.[NumbersUSA]

You can watch Sen. Cotton's Senate floor speech here

Short-term Spending, Refugees and H-2B Visas

Congressional Leaders resist pushes to increase refugee funding and H-2B foreign worker visas

The House overwhelmingly approved, with bipartisan support, a short-term spending bill yesterday without any significant changes to the refugee program and without expanding the H-2B guest-worker program. We've been asking you for phone calls and faxes since late last week, and your activism paid off! The Senate is expected to pass the bill over the next few days, but there is some resistance from a handful of Democratic Senators.

The short-term spending bill would fund the government through late-April, so there will likely be another battle then. But negotiations will be with a different administration that's more focused on eliminating fraud within the refugee program and protecting the jobs and wages of American workers.

We faced two threats with this week's fight. First, back in September, Pres. Obama demanded an increase in funding for the refugee program to accommodate an additional 25,000 refugees over last year's already inflated numbers. The White House more recently requested a doubling of refugee funding through the short-term spending bill. The money not only would pay for the additional refugees, but would house and resettle across the U.S. the thousands of border surgers who have illegally entered the U.S. in recent months.

Congress added a small increase in refugee funding, but none of the additional funds can be used to resettle new refugees in the United States nor can they be used by the Obama Administration to house and resettle the border surgers. The other threat came from Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) who insisted that Congress extend a provision from last year's omnibus spending bill that exempts certain returning foreign workers from the H-2B visa caps. The exemption could potentially quadruple the H-2B guest worker program from its cap of 66,000 per year.

Congressional Leaders left the proposed extension out of the spending bill as introduced, but Harris urged the House Rules Committee to allow an amendment to the bill. Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and the rest of the committee rejected Harris' request.

Again, thank you to all the activists that made phone calls and sent faxes over the last 10 days to help protect low-skilled American workers and to help rein in a refugee program that's riddled with fraud and lacks oversight.

Numbers USA, Roy Beck

No exemptions on H-2B visas for foreign workers

Numbers USA says, Tell Congress not to expand low-skilled guest worker program

Each year, the federal government issues 66,000 H-2B visas to low-skilled foreign workers to fill jobs that are seasonal or temporary in nature. But American workers with a high school degree or less depend on these jobs and are instead forced to compete with foreign workers. Nearly half of working-aged American workers with less than a high school degree are out of work.

Last year, Congress exempted returning foreign workers from the H-2B cap, in effect, quadrupling the number of H-2B visas issued each year. This exemption expires on Sept. 30 unless Congress extends it into FY2017.

Please send a message to your three Members of Congress and urge them to oppose an extension of the H-2B provision for FY2017.

Numbers USA Alert

* I urge you to oppose any efforts to expand the H-2B visa program in the FY2017 spending bills. The provision included in last year's omnibus bill exempted returning workers, potentially quadrupling the number of H-2B visas issued. These visas are given to low-skilled foreign workers to fill temporary or seasonal jobs, but these are the very jobs that American workers with a high school degree or less depend on. Please allow this expansion to expire on Sept. 30.

* Pres. Obama is demanding that Congress fund the resettlement of 110,000 refugees in FY2017 despite warnings from FBI Director James Comey that refugees from terrorist-sponsoring nations cannot be fully vetted. Please include a moratorium on refugee resettlement from terrorist-sponsoring nations in the upcoming continuing resolution.
You can reach your Members of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. When the operator answers, simply ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative's or Senators' office.