Hopes are high that the new bill will become law by the end of the year, but the legislation faces stiff opposition in Congress from anti-illegal-immigration quarters, which say the bill amounts to ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The following is from information compiled by PLANET government affairs director Tom Delaney at the network?EUR??,,????'?????<

PLANET asks that business owners and others call senators at (202) 225-3121 and ask that the draft senate immigration bill be revised to:

• maintain the integrity of the current h-2b program;
• permanently extend the current repeat-worker exemption;
• increase the cap and include a market-based regulator; and
• provide appropriate resources for h-2b processing at the departments of Labor, Homeland Security and State.

Basically, the current draft would result in major problems before the implementation of the Y-2B (the proposed new name for H-2B) visa because there is no extension of the repeat-worker exemption beyond the end of this year, and the cap is too low to help once the new program is established. We know that last year close to 200,000 visas were issued. If you count repeat workers, the maximum would be 115,000, assuming 100,000 were reached in the first half of the fiscal year, which is fewer visas than last year.

Senate staff in support of the H-2B program now know that we need language possibly included in the manager’s amendment that would extend the repeat-worker amendment under the H-2B program until the Y-2B program takes affect, and then either create the same exemption under the Y-2B program or significantly raise the Y-2B program cap and not limit it to 200,000. We believe that contact with the main senators’ staff, who are authors of the bill, has already been made to discuss the problem.

There are also other items in the guest-worker program and sections dealing with employers who have employees that may be illegal and problematic.

Because the information is changing so quickly, we will try to give you more updates, as soon as all the information and coordination with other groups is completed.

For further information contact Tom Delaney, PLANET director of government affairs, at tomdelaney@landcarenetwork.org or call (800) 395-2522.