WHAT IS THE H-2B PROGRAM?* It allows employers to bring foreign workers temporarily to the United States and do nonagricultural jobs on a one-time, seasonal or intermittent basis.* An employer must show there are not sufficient U.S. workers to do the temporary job and that the employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers doing similar jobs.* The U.S. Department of Labor processes all H-2B applications on a first-in, first-out basis.* Congress sets a limit of 66,000 new H-2B visas in a fiscal year.Source: U.S. Department of LaborCHANGES TO H-2B PROGRAM* Starting in 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor will require employers who use the program to pay U.S. and guest workers the highest rate of the federal, state or local minimum wage.Source: U.S. Department of Labor
TUILCANABAJ, Guatemala – Lisandro Braulio was 16 when he made what he calls one of the worst mistakes of his life.
His father, Domingo Braulio, had told him to wait until he turned 18 to come to the United States as a guest worker, just like his father had done, but he ignored the advice and crossed into America illegally.
He went home to Guatemala in 2007 and later returned to the United States under the guest worker program known as H-2B, just like his father. This year was going to be Lisandro Braulio’s fourth time in Chattanooga under the program, but his past reached up and grabbed him.
Border protection agents in the Atlanta airport denied his visa and sent him back to Guatemala because they discovered he’d entered the country illegally six years ago. Now the 22-year-old is back in Guatemala and without a job to support his wife, Romelia Sánchez, and their 18-month-old son, Eliezer.