MARYLAND, Frustration grows as seafood processors on Maryland's Eastern Shore are still waiting for the chance at having some of the additional H2B worker visas the federal government announced it was making available earlier this year.
Back in March, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor announced it was making 35,000 additional H2B visas available for work dates starting April 1st, 2022.
Now, roughly three weeks later, the distribution of those visas has still not happened.
"Some of these companies are still lights out," according to Jack Brooks, President of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association. "They have not opened and cannot open with absolutely no staff...for the most part, the nine companies are either totally shut down or severely reduced in what they can do."
On Friday, Republican Congressman Andy Harris issued a statement calling on the federal government to release the 35,000 visas. Harris saying, in part, "Each day of bureaucratic delay is another day of cancelled contracts, lost income, and lost jobs for our seasonal employers on the Eastern Shore..."
The supplemental H-2B visa allocation consists of 23,500 visas available to returning workers, who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status, during one of the last three fiscal years. The remaining 11,500 visas, which are exempt from the returning worker requirement, are reserved for nationals of Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.