Senate Votes Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers

Senate Passes H-2B Amendment to Import Labor for Entry-Level U.S. Jobs 

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Senate passed an amendment to increase from 66,000 to as many as three times the number of low-skill, temporary, foreign workers admitted to the United States each year.  The amendment was offered by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), to H.R. 1268, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.

“Senators who voted to import more low-skilled workers will have to answer to the 14 million adult Americans and the countless college students who cannot find full-time jobs in the current economy,” said Roy Beck, Executive Director of NumbersUSA.  “It is unfortunate that these Senators are more willing to do the bidding of the cheap-labor lobby than to help American citizens find living wage jobs.”  

Mikulski’s amendment increases the number of H-2B workers U.S. employers can import each year to as many as three times its current limit of 66,000.  The five occupations for which employers import the most H-2B workers are: 1) landscape laborer, 2) forest worker, 3) maid/housekeeping, 4) stable attendant, and 5) construction worker.  Yet, the three industries with the highest unemployment rates in the United States are: 1) agriculture, including landscape laborers and forest workers, (11.8 percent); 2) construction (10.3 percent); and 3) leisure/hospitality, including maids and housekeeping and stable attendants (employed by racetracks) (8.3 percent).

The unemployment rate among the 12 million American adults who do not have a high school diploma is almost 9 percent and the unemployment rate among Black Americans is 10.5 percent.  Unskilled, American workers are the most vulnerable to unemployment.  Increasing the number of H-2B workers will reduce the number of jobs available to these Americans, drive down wages, and drive up unemployment.

"Statistics clearly show that low-skill American workers are the most vulnerable and need the jobs being given to foreign workers,” said Beck.  “We now look to the House of Representatives to help unemployed and underemployed Americans get back to work.”

The Iraq Supplemental bill (H.R. 1268) is expected to pass the Senate this week, and the differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions will be resolved in a Conference Committee, at which time it is possible for the House to reject Mikulski’s H-2B amendment in the Senate version. 

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