H-2B/Landscape Industry Immigration Reform Proposal Drafted

The organization, which is focused on immigration reform to increase the number of essential workers available to industries like the lawn and landscape market, is focusing on four legislative proposals for essential workers in the first phase of its reform agenda:

• Short-term Visas: A new short-term program (reworking the H-2B program) that employers with truly short-term needs could use;



• Long-term Visas: A new longer-term visa similar to the H-1B program that can convert to permanent residence;



• Permanent Residence: Reforms to the permanent employment-based categories (green cards) to make those programs available to essential workers and their employers; and



• Earned Adjustment: A program for "earned adjustment" for undocumented individuals who are in the United States and working to earn a green card by agreeing to work in essential worker occupations for a period.

HIGHLIGHTS OF EWIC’S REFORM AGENDA. As part of the short-term (less than one year) visa reform proposed by EWIC, the H-2B would make accessibility of visas for temporary work much easier for employers with short-term needs. The proposal would make definitions clear that any need for service or labor of less than one year will qualify, regardless of the reason for the need - such as seasonality, peak-load, one-time project or an intermittent need. The proposal would allow employers to recruit prior to actual need so employees are available at the beginning of the term of the job, would allow employer groups to sponsor H-2B employees for similar job openings and would increase the cap.

The longer-term visa (H-1 "EW") outlined in the proposal, which is short-term for up to six years, would create a new, nonimmigrant visa category for essential workers that is similar to the H-1B category. It could be used for both short-term and long-term needs since the duration of the job is not relevant to obtaining status; for example, the job could be temporary or permanent, but the admission of the foreign worker is only temporary. Like the proposed short-term visa, the long-term provision would allow employers to recruit prior to actual need so employees are available at the beginning of the term of the job and would allow employer groups to sponsor employees for similar job openings. This proposed visa would also set a "pierceable" cap of 195,000 visas and allow these nonimmigrants to apply for permanent residence while maintaining nonimmigrant status - "dual intent."

The permanent residence section of the reform agenda proposes the creation of a separate immigrant visa category for essential workers. Although employers could not sponsor individuals for permanent residence in this status from the H-2B category, the employer could sponsor someone from abroad, or from the longer-term H-1 "EW" status.

Finally, the earned adjustment proposal included in the first stage of EWIC’s reform agenda would create a one-time program that would allow undocumented individuals currently working in essential worker occupations to earn adjustment to permanent residence. The adjustment would require a commitment to continue to work in essential worker jobs for three years. EWIC said this proposal would stabilize the existing workforce and that the other proposed temporary and permanent legal immigration programs would encourage future immigrants to come legally.

MORE TO THE REFORM AGENDA. In addition to the short-term, long-term and permanent residence immigration programs highlighted above in EWIC’s reform agenda, the organization is also concentrating on the following immigration enforcement issues that will soon have similar policy outlines drafted:

• Regularization of Certain Undocumented Workers Currently in the U.S.
• Establish a one-time mechanism to allow undocumented workers in the U.S. to convert to a legal status - a conditional employment-based status leading to permanent status.
• Regularization initiatives should be matched to employability, although not necessarily a particular employer.
• Workable Immigration Enforcement System
• Employer sanctions repeal (Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986).
• Employer sanctions repeal should be paired with an updated legal immigration system to reduce undocumented immigration.
• Maintenance of Existing Worker Protections
• A new immigration system should not result in any diminution or expansion of current worker protections.