Thread by @David_J_Bier

Unbelievable! USCIS delayed the #H2B rule for 55 days past employer's start dates. Then tells them all that their labor certifications are "out of date" if the start date was more than 45 days ago, forcing them to redo the whole process. Wonder why we've got illegal immigration?

I'm certain that #H2B employers will do this, but it is absolutely ridiculous and unfair to employers that are trying to follow the law. They met all the requirements. They did everything right, and now USCIS says they have to redo it b/c the agency messed up. Unbelievable.

USCIS says every employer under this rule will have to prove "irreparable harm" if they don't get visas and that the visas will help preserve US workers jobs. Yet it is arbitrarily capping the number of visas at 1/3 the number Congress allowed. It doesn't even try to justify it

It's literally baked into the rule that companies who don't get visas will face irreparable harm and that US workers will suffer, and USCIS even says so. Yet it's still moving forward with this 22K cap when Congress gave them 64K

I love this. USCIS says we're acting to prevent "serious economic harm to the H-2B community" but then never acknowledges that the 22K will cause that as well. Also, never acknowledges that it wouldn't need to bypass comments if it proposed the rule in Dec or Jan or Feb or Mar!

Here's the reason. Economically obtuse labor union advocacy. Unemployment is *always* higher in these occupations because the jobs are inherently temporary, so more stints of unemployment are guaranteed. That's why US workers are less likely to apply!

I explain this issue in my #H2B paper. More stints of unemployment, but of much shorter duration. cato.org/publications/p…

Why is this issue so important? Because H-2 visas are the main or only way for poor foreign workers without families already here to come to the United States legally. Saying you don't want H-2B workers is basically just saying you don't want poor workers coming.

Here's a bizarre thing. USCIS will reallocate the visas set aside for Central America to other countries if they aren't used by July 8 to "help ensure that supplemental H-2B visas do not go unused." Your whole rule is about ensuring that most supplemental visas *do* go unused!

So USCIS is undermining the efficacy of the Central American set-aside in an effort to make sure that visas don't go unused. Why not just make the other visas available? What on Earth is going on here?