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Photo Pru Sowers
Steve Lagana, an immigration attorney, said the proposed immigration reform bill could ultimately help Provincetown businesses find workers, while others say it will hurt their efforts to find summer help. |
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Immigration bill — will it hurt or help?
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — An immigration reform bill revived in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday could have a far-reaching impact on Provincetown and other Outer Cape towns if it becomes law.
The bill still faces major hurdles in both the Senate and House. And even if it does pass, the final provisions are unclear because of several proposed amendments still to be debated. However, some local business owners are worried that a clause in the bill that currently calls for an overhaul of the seasonal worker visa program could worsen an already existing problem.
Many Cape Cod businesses that use immigrant workers from Jamaica, Mexico and Eastern Europe ran into a processing roadblock this winter that has delayed visa approval for months. The delay has forced dozens of workers, hired to work this summer in Provincetown and who were slated to arrive in April and May, to remain in their countries awaiting the required paperwork.
Under the proposed immigration reform bill as it stands now, the visa program, which grants the so-called H2B visas for seasonal, unskilled workers, would be reclassified with new restrictions put in place. Candy Collins-Boden, executive director of the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce, said the bill would eliminate a “grandfather” clause, which currently allows returning workers not to be included in the cap on the number of annual seasonal visas granted.
“There is no guarantee your people can come back next year. It will be harder to bring them in,” she said. “We’re in huge trouble getting workers.”
Many Provincetown businesses, such as the Lobster Pot, Clem & Ursie’s and Bubala’s by the Bay, hire the same crew of workers each year, forging a strong bond between employer and employee and removing many of the headaches for business owners needing a steady supply of summer workers. Because those employees are grandfathered, they are allowed to bypass the cap U.S. immigration officials puts on the number of summer worker visas, which is currently 33,000. As a result, it is significantly easier to obtain visas for returning workers.
If the grandfather clause is ultimately eliminated from any immigration reform bill, it could add to the backlog of visa processing that occurred this winter, when visa applications submitted by seasonal employers on the East Coast were mired in a huge pile-up at the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The logjam still exists, Collins-Boden said, pointing to the 30 Flex bus driver positions that remain unfilled because foreign workers hired for the job still haven’t received visas.
“You’ve got people now who still don’t have the people they need,” said Steve Melamed, chair of the town’s economic development council and co-owner of Bayside Betsy’s. While his foreign workers have received visas, he said, they arrived about three weeks later than he had hoped. If the immigration reform bill passes with a reclassification of the H2B program, the town will be in desperate need of seasonal workers, he said.
Joy McNulty, owner of the Lobster Pot, was more optimistic, saying one option in the proposed reform bill would allow foreign employees who have worked in Provincetown for at least three years to be grandfathered. At this point, the number of summer seasonal workers allowed into the country is slated to remain the same, she said.
“They’re amending everything so much I don’t know how it will end up. For me, the jury is still out,” McNulty said.
Perhaps more far-reaching, the immigration reform bill — which reportedly faces an uphill battle for approval — might make it easier for illegal immigrants to apply for and receive U.S. citizenship. Steve Lagana, an immigration attorney who works in Provincetown and Lawrence, said this could help the Outer Cape by allowing the illegals currently living and working in the area to receive a green card. Lagana said he has received approximately 40-50 calls a year from illegal immigrants living in Provincetown asking him to help them stay legally. He has met about 30 of the immigrants, who either came to this country illegally or who stayed past their visa deadline, at his Provincetown home, he said.
“A lot of the people who come to see me came in on H2B visas and overstayed. Now they want to try to fix it,” Lagana said.
If Congress passes an immigration reform bill that offers some type of amnesty to illegal immigrants, that could make it easier for local businesses to find summer workers. Melamed said he gets several job applicants each year who can’t produce a visa or green card when asked. He won’t hire them, he said, because he could lose his business license if the workers were discovered.
Nantucket was the site of a major immigration crackdown last week, when federal immigration authorities staged a pre-dawn raid and arrested 16 illegal immigrants on criminal charges that included assault, theft, drug-dealing and other felonies. All face court hearings and possible deportation. It was the first immigration sweep on Nantucket.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Provincetown were next,” Collins-Boden said. “What better place to hide out than here where there are a lot of other immigrants?”
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Jun 28th, 2007