Taking advantage of the “must-pass” omnibus federal spending bill for fiscal year 2018-2019, advocates for the H-2B guest-worker visa program managed to get an extension of the authority for the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to increase the 66,000 statutory cap on H-2B visas. This provision is like one that was included in last year’s spending bill. Increase not... read more
On Dec. 21, not three months after the start of the federal fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it had reached the six-month cap of 33,000 visas for the H-2B guest-worker visa program used by many landscape contractors as a part of their labor force. An additional 33,000 visas will be available for the second half... read more
On July 18, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor submitted a final rule to the Federal Register that will allow the hiring of up to 15,000 additional temporary nonagricultural workers under the H-2B program, according to a press release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office of Communications. The program is designed for... read more
After 31 years, Litzenburger Landscape shut its doors due to delays in the H-2B guest-worker visa process, the Petoskey News reported. The Harbor Springs, Mich.-based landscape company notified customers of its closing in a March 14 letter. The letter cited significant delays this year in processing the federal H-2B visas for guest workers from Mexico. The workers make up a large... read more
A new report from BuzzFeed found some employers “go to extraordinary lengths” to avoid hiring U.S. workers so they qualify for foreign workers through the H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs. It also said some state and federal officials allowed companies to disobey “not only the spirit, but the letter, of the law.” The landscape industry is one of the largest users... read more
This year was not a productive year for Congress dealing with issues important to landscape contractors. For that matter, 2015 was not a productive year for Congress by any measure. Although both the House and Senate are controlled by the Republican Party, deep internal divisions among Republican House members, kept much of anything meaningful from getting to the floor for... read more
