Sunday, September 18, 2022

It's The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Immigration Shuffle

Sunlit7 op







 The other night someone posted an article about all the immigrants pouring into Martha's Vineyard. I made several comments that chances are since the HB2 Visa reopened last year, that's for non agricultural workers, the rich running swanky hotels and tourist destinations are just as in need of workers as anyone else right now.

Ron DeSantis sends two planes of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard
https://newsbeyonddetroit.net/2022/09/14/ron-desantis-sends-two-planes-of-illegal-immigrants-to-marthas-vineyard/

Just like everyone else the rich are stretched for labor. Now that the HB2 visa program is opened backed up they are probably calling Florida, Texas and Arizona governors and offering up $$$$ to get their hands on the legal ones coming in.

It's way easier to pay day labor farm hands cash than trying to cover for a maid in a swanky playground for the rich. My monies on the elites vying for those coming in legally now that the HB2 visa program is operational again.

That's why I think the whole gist of this is them shipping legal immigrants to fill jobs at swanky hotels and vacation spots, they are in dire need of workers. The HB2 visa program was shut down until last year, it takes several months to start processing them through. I'd almost laid money on it given it's only a hand few here and there being taken on those buses. The elites probably have made a game out of it, bidding on the heads of cheap legal labor.

It's probably a hotter button than most people ponder. The elites are in dire need of help, not just in Martha's Vineyard. I'd almost bet money this is a scheme among the rich to get the ones coming into the country legally imported into their states. The HB2 visa program was shut down until last year, it takes a few months for those visa's to process and I bet the race was on to get ahold of cheap legal immigrant workers. The fact it's a few bus loads here and there instead of a steady stream of buses carrying them across the states makes it all a more compelling argument that five star hotels and extravagant vacation area's are willing to go the extra mile and give these governors a call.

The comments were everything from giving progressives a taste of their medicine to a man who said if he were a woman he'd want to have Ron DeSantis baby. I think the closest I could relate to was one who said it sounded like a game called button, button whose got the button, which prompted my last reply. If you think of those buttons as employers scrambling to get your hands on legal immigrant labor than that comment would be spot on.

If I am going to be popping people's bubbles I want to try and be as close to accurate as I can get. Not that bursting their bubbles helps, instead it's usually followed by accusations of some sort of another or I am outright troll. Since I've stopped following the clown cars of distraction and jumped off the Trump train I've been called everything from a m'fer to a baby rapist among my blogging peers. Maybe I should have started with "b" and ended with "m" because I could at this point find a derogatory word I've been called for every letter in between the two. Heck, let me be honest, I could easily make it to the end of the alphabet. Usually if I am going to shine a spotlight on something I feel it's warranted to give people information they can ponder, stuff they should think about that may not have occurred to them, or even a vital piece of information within an article they overlooked, which is what happened tonight on another article about the immigrants being transported into New York City.

Adams ‘welcomes’ 200 El Paso migrants a day from fellow Dem mayor — but slams Abbott buses
https://newsbeyonddetroit.net/2022/09/17/adams-welcomes-200-el-paso-migrants-a-day-from-fellow-dem-mayor-but-slams-abbott-buses/

Instead of trying to ponder a clue from my last comments the comments on the thread are similarly hip hop hurray filled. Inside this article was one of those vital clue moments.

Meanwhile, a charity worker who greeted the migrants arriving in the city from El Paso on Thursday blasted Adams’ administration for not doing enough.

“We are getting absolutely no help from the city,” said Power Malu, executive director of the Lower Manhattan-based nonprofit Artists Athletes Activists Inc.

“Whether it’s the food that we’re feeding them with, whether it’s the clothes being donated, we’re taking people to the places where they need to go — everything that we’re doing is coming out of pocket.”

Unlike the articles you read coming out of Chicago, Washington DC, and Martha's Vineyard where claims are made there is no room at the "Inn" for these migrants the claim here is they are taking the people to the places they need to go. If you read in many of the articles these are migrants whose paperwork has been cleared by DHS. This is in sharp contrast to articles where you read that many of the migrants are released in the US without having first gone through the processing process. Mainly because being cleared by DHS and going through the processing process are two different scenarios. It's basically a word salad. If they have been cleared by DHS they've been given or granted one of several types of visas to come here legally. If they are merely processed after having come over the border illegally they are given, or are suppose to be given a court date to show up in immigration court to have their case heard.

To better understand what is taking place you basically have to go back to the beginning of the year when news broke that the government was flying immigrants into airports or busing them late at night. Back in 2020 when the pandemic hit the Trump administration shut down HB2 visa's into the country. This was due to many Americans being out of work and needing jobs and to stop spread of the corona virus from coming in. Last year that process opened back up again, it takes an average of three to four months from the time employers apply for the program to them actually receiving workers. There's a whole matrix of steps they have to take to prove they couldn't find enough American workers to fulfilled jobs, up to and including advertising for thirty days first. That time period accounts for the first influx of news of them flying/busing migrants around the country. These are people who can legally work for employers in this country and are specifically requested by employers. So there is a specific place these workers can go, "the places they need to go". In any given year the US allows 66,000 HB2 visa holders to enter the country, if there is an overwhelming demand they increase that number. These are suppose to be temporary employees who return to their country of origins unless exempted from return or there is a final rule change. It should be noted that prior to the reactivation of the HB2 program many migrants never returned back, but that's another story but a critical detail none the less. So these sporadic sightings of planes and buses arriving in the middle of the night was just the beginning of the fiscal year entrance of migrants from fiscal year Sept 30, 2021 to Sept 30, 2022. As more applicants were approved the number of sightings increase and so did all the speculation on why the government was flying immigrants around the country. That would also explain why three, four months would go by before you'd see more articles of them flying in migrants, some even putting them up in motel rooms. Which only increased the speculation and rumors. So with thousands and thousands more to go plus a thirty five thousand increase in the numbers they had to devise a different plan than trying to sneak thousands of people around the US in the middle of the night.

This is where they can get the bamboozled to hop in the clown car. They come up with some elaborate scheme to say that the governors of red states are going to start shipping these migrants to sanctuary cities. Once they do that people buy into it. It not like they are going to tell you that they've brought in sixty six thousand migrants plus increased that number another thirty five thousand because of demand. You'd be outraged, but if they tell you it's to take revenge on sanctuary cities you'd be all the good with it, teach a lesson you'd say. That's exactly what is being said. People fell for it hook, line and sinker. Now, now, now let's not get confused and try and claim it's revenge for sending migrants to red states in the first place, that's a whole different visa program known as HB1 agricultural, these are HB2 people. Oh, there's plenty more, way plenty more but first let's get back to the HB2 topic.

The H‑2B program allows nonagricultural employers to hire foreign workers when they cannot find U.S. workers to perform temporary jobs. Since 2014, employers have repeatedly hit the H‑2B cap of 66,000 visas, so Congress has repeatedly authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to permit workers to enter above the cap. 

 https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-banned-many-h-2b-workers-no-more-us-workers-applied-now-he-may-extend-ban


On May 16, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the numerical limit (or cap) on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 35,000 additional visas for positions with start dates in the second half of fiscal year (FY) 2022 (on or after April 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2022). These supplemental visas are available only to U.S. businesses that are suffering or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petition, as attested by the employer on a new attestation form.

Of the 35,000 additional visas, 23,500 are available only for returning workers (workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years). The remaining 11,500 visas are set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (collectively called Northern Central American countries) and Haiti, who are exempt from the returning worker requirement. See “Who Can Petition for the Additional Visas” below. To qualify for the additional visas, petitions must be received by Sept. 15, 2022.

This increase is based on time-limited statutory authority that does not affect the H-2B program in future fiscal years.

This increase in the cap is in accordance with Section 204 of Division O of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law 117-103, which provided the secretary of DHS with the authority to make available additional H-2B visas for FY 2022. Before authorizing the additional visa numbers, the secretary of homeland security, in consultation with the secretary of labor, considered the needs of businesses and other factors, including the impact on U.S. workers and the integrity of the H-2B program. 

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2b-non-agricultural-workers/temporary-increase-in-h-2b-nonimmigrant-visas-for-fy-2022 

Right now it's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World out there trying to get all these workers into place before the deadline. They are literally pulling their hair out trying to manage it. It gets all the more Mad:

Only U.S. businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm (permanent and severe financial loss) if they cannot employ all the H-2B workers that they request on their Form I-129 petition for the second half of this fiscal year may file H-2B petitions under this temporary increase. In addition, employers may only request workers who have been issued an H-2B visa or otherwise granted H-2B status in FY 2019, 2020, or 2021, unless they are petitioning for workers under the 11,500 Northern Central American/Haiti allotment.

The joint temporary final rule provisions pertaining to the 35,000 supplemental visas do not apply to petitions that are not subject to the H-2B cap, including those petitions filed for an H-2B extension of stay request or on behalf of certain fish roe processors. Those petitions may continue to be filed under the normal rules of the H-2B program.

And the race is on:

USCIS will stop accepting petitions under this increase received after Sept. 15, 2022, or when the cap is reached, whichever occurs first. We will reject any petitions received after Sept. 15 or after the cap is reached, whichever is earlier. USCIS will deny all petitions not approved before Oct. 1, 2022, and will not refund any fees.

They want as many migrants at the starting line by the deadline so they can stuff as many of them in under their quota as possible before the start of the next fiscal year.

We will consider petitions requesting an employment start date after Sept. 30, 2022, towards the first half of the regular FY 2023 H-2B cap, subject to all eligibility requirements for FY 2023 H-2B cap filings.

BUT WAIT! There's more!....because of the high demand for foreign workers so forth and so on....if an employer don't need all his employees he requested all the way through the year those employees don't have to return home they can stay. They won't be counted as part of the extended quota amount they are just going to lift the rule that says migrants who feel they are being subjected to abuse and want to work elsewhere will be lifted.

In addition to making additional visas available under the FY 2022 time-limited authority, DHS is exercising its general H-2B regulatory authority to temporarily extend portability flexibility that allows certain H-2B workers who are already in the United States to begin work with a new employer after USCIS receives the H-2B petition (supported by a valid temporary labor certification) filed on their behalf, and before the H-2B petition is approved. Portability enables certain H-2B workers to change employers more quickly if they encounter unsafe or abusive working conditions. With disruptions and uncertainty over visa processing and international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this additional flexibility allows U.S. employers to meet their labor needs, while allowing H-2B workers to change employers more quickly. This effective extension of a current and temporary flexibility is available if a nonfrivolous H-2B petition requesting an extension of stay is received on or before Jan. 24, 2023.

Petitions filed to extend the stay of H-2B workers who are already in the U.S. as H-2B workers are not subject to the cap. Thus, petitioners requesting to have these current H-2B workers immediately work for them after they file their petition with USCIS and before the petition is approved, under the portability provision of the temporary final rule, are not subject to the irreparable harm requirement. These petitioners, who are only seeking portability flexibilities for cap-exempt workers, are also not required to conduct a fresh round of recruitment or to submit Form ETA-9142-B-CAA-6.

Wow, lookie there, cap-exempt. Wowie wow wow. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World out there right now among employers but instead of a mad dash for loot it's a mad dash for migrant labor. You couldn't have written a better script other than the original movie. Get governors to pretend they turned against each other to get migrants where they need to go before the deadline, almost beats the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious stint.

That's hardly the end of it either. There's HB1 Specialty Occupations and Fashion Models, H2A agricultural workers, o1 Individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement among a dozen more and they are all rushing toward the fiscal cut off date to be put in place. I haven't looked but there's probably been final rules changes and increases in other categories, especially agricultural. You'd really think though that by now people would wake up to how they are being played.