Homeland security bans Filipino workers from H-2B visa program

UPDATED: Jan. 31, 12 p.m. to include information on Mar-A-Lago.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it is banning Filipino workers from the H-2B visa program for at least a year, based on a finding that as much as 40 percent of H-2B workers from the Philippines "overstay" beyond the period their visa allows them to work in the United States.

About 1000 visas a year are used by Filipinos in recent years and the impact varies according to region.

"The Philippines is to Guam what Mexico is to California," said John Robertson, president of AmOrient Engineering and an official in the Guam Contractors Association.

On Guam, Filipino H-2B visa holders work mainly in construction. Historically, local worker numbers haven't met Guam's need for a mass of workers committed to work day after day doing field construction work.

Guam's ties to the Philippine labor market also became crucial during the hotel construction boom on Guam between the 1980s and 1990s.

And now that Guam is in the midst of another military buildup – with the Department of Defense's development of a Marine Corps base, in addition to the Air Force and Navy bases that have been here a long time – more workers from the Philippines are being brought in and more are expected to be brought in.

On the mainland, H-2B visa holders work in businesses like amusement parks that need extra staff during summer or ski resorts that need help during the winter months are most likely to use this program. Other businesses that use this program include construction, golf courses, cruise lines, resorts, seasonal recreational facilities and other tourism based businesses.

These positions can be for both skilled and unskilled workers. So there isn’t a requirement that the job be for those with a college degree or equivalent, like there is for the H1B Visa program. But businesses do need to be able to show or explain why they need to hire foreign nationals. So if there’s no shortage of U.S. workers who are willing and able to do the job, businesses may not be able to hire using the H2B Visa program.

In fiscal year 2017, 64 agricultural visas and 767 seasonal work visas were issued in the Philippines, according to State Department data.

The federal notice does not affect those who currently hold valid visas, it said, though they would be affected if they applied for an extension.

“DHS and DOS are concerned about the high volume of trafficking victims from the Philippines who were originally issued H-2B visas and the potential that continued H-2B visa issuance may encourage or serve as an avenue for future human trafficking from the Philippines,” the notice read.

A civil rights nonprofit based in Los Angeles that has represented survivors of human trafficking from the Philippines said the decision was "short-sighted and not the way to mitigate human trafficking."

“We have seen that many Filipinos in the United States endure human trafficking, deceptive recruitment practices and other forms of labor exploitation,” Christopher Lapinig, registered legal services attorney at Advancing Justice-LA, said in a statement.

"Filipinos do suffer from human trafficking as a result of abused H-2A and H-2B visas," Laboni Hoq, litigation director at AAAJ — Los Angeles, said in a statement. "The government needs to provide greater protections for H-2A and H-2B visa holders, not cut off access to these visas entirely."
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“Instead of targeting vulnerable populations, the Administration should address greedy corporations and abusive employers," said Alvina Yeh, executive director of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.  

Aside from the Philippines, Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic were also removed from the list of countries eligible for the said visa programs.

In a statement dated Jan. 22, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs noted that the U.S. was within its rights to deny the visas and reminded Filipinos to follow immigration rules.

"Nonetheless, the Philippines is open to the possibility of working with the United States in addressing these issues, as it has previously done so with similar concerns involving the Filipino Community there," the statement read.

By the way, Trump benefits

Despite the ban targetting Filipinos, the H-2B visa program has actually expanded beyond the 66,000 cap. Last year, the Trump administration allowed an extra 15,000 H-2B visas to be allocated.

Funny, one of the employers who has benefited from the H-2B program are Trump properties, including Mar-A-Lago, according to Vox.

As part of the program, businesses must pay round-trip airfare or bus fare to bring the approved workers from abroad (the vast majority of them come from Mexico). The H-2B database shows requests from Mar-a-Lago dating back to 2013, and this practice has not stopped since Trump became president.

And a Vox analysis of hiring records for seasonal workers at three Trump properties in New York and Florida revealed that only one out of 144 jobs went to a U.S. worker from 2016 to the end of 2017. Foreign guest workers with H-2B visas got the rest. Since they were hired before the ban was implemented, their immigration status won't be affected - at least, not until they try to extend the visa.

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AAPI Vote 2018: Labor, Democrats zero in on Nevada Senate race

NEVADAAAPI

AAPI VOTERS can play a pivotal role in determining who will represent Nevada in the U.S. Senate. Democrats and union activists believe the Republican incumbent is vulnerable and are increasing their efforts to win AAPI votes.

Asian Americans can make an electoral difference, says Alvina Yeh, executive director of the Asian-Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). Indeed, two years ago in Nevada, the winner of a tight U.S. Senate race there, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, said “APALA and Asian American media were critical” for her win.

Democrat Rep. Jacky Rosen has narrowed incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller's slight advantage to a statistical tie, according fivethirtyeight. Both parties brought in their big guns to support their candidates. Donald Trump visited the state last week to lend his support to Heller's campaign and President Barack Obama came in to rally Rosen's backers.

But when the  TV cameras move to other campaigns and the spotlight dims, it comes down to motivating the voter and here is where Asian Americans can make a difference if the parties don't overlook them or take them for granted. 

“The parties are taking Asian Americans for granted. They don’t want to spend the time or the money talking with Asian-Americans.”

APALA hopes to fill in the void by building on its prior “strong election operations,” despite its relatively small size, to expand both Asian Americans’ political clout and its own reach. 

For now, “Nevada is our biggest program,” Yeh says, with 30,000 door-to-door house visits and more than 80,000 phone calls already concentrating on the election. Most of them, as might be expected, are in Clark County (Las Vegas) and its Washoe County suburbs.

APALA's objective, according to Yeh, is to elect a new pro-worker Democratic governor and legislature and to oust GOP right-wing Heller in favor of pro-worker Rosen.

About 9 percent of Nevada's population is solely Asian American and about 1 percent is solely native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. But the AAPI community hasn't been as active or organized as other ethnic groups in the state like Latinos.

"We are so content with doing well for ourselves pretty much. We don't think about really going out there politically," said Vinuya, a Filipino immigrant.

Culturally, many Asian Americans come from countries with less of a democratic tradition and governments that do not encourage political participation, Vinuya told U.S. News & World Report.

"A lot of us come from different countries," said Vinuya. "Some of the countries that we come from, you're silent. You're not allowed to speak up."

NEVADA FACT SHEET

(Source: APIAVote)

The biggest employers in Las Vegas, to no one's surprise, are the casinos. and hotels  You see AAPI workers everywhere: dealers, servers, kitchen staff, hotel maids, to front desk.

Organized labor has had success in recruiting members. Since many of them are immigrants, unions encourage and assist their immigrant members to become U.S. citizens in order to turn them into voters.

For example, the Culinary Workers Union provides free classes to members applying for U.S. citizenship, with its Citizenship Project helping 16,000 Nevadans become citizens for free since 2001, says union spokeswoman Bethany Khan. 

In 2016, the union helped 2,500 people become citizens in time to vote, she says. The union itself is 56 percent Latino and 55 percent female; many of its members work as housekeepers, casino workers or bartenders on the Last Vegas Strip – which itself is near Chinatown Plaza, which features the city's largest concentration of Asian businesses.

Union membership also provides unique benefits to provide upward movement for its mainly minority workers, Khan says, with a pension, free health care, access to a fund providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for housing, and free training for any other job represented by the union – meaning a housekeeper can become a sommelier.

And hotel and casino management are stepping up, as well. Caesars Entertainment, for example, offers employees reimbursement for the application and preparation costs for naturalization (not all Strip workers are members of the union and so not all can get the full-freight assistance the Culinary Workers provide, Khan says). Station Casinos offers assistance as well. And MGM Resorts International, the largest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip, announced after the Charlottesville neo-Nazi march and deadly clash with counter-demonstrators that it would match all employee donations to civil rights groups including the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League, Human Rights Campaign, Council on American-Islamic Relations, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, League of United Latin American Citizens and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"There's just a real corporate mindset to value their employees. Many of them are immigrant families that make their beds and do their lawns," says Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. "When Culinary would bring up the citizenship programs, they embraced it. They want to make sure they are not splitting families up."

Nevada is an example of how political parties and candidates can work with an increasingly diverse electorate. Asian Americans, Latino Americans and African Americans tend to vote Democratic, boding well for the party. 

In Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign brought in celebrities like actress Constance Wu and comedian Margaret Cho to help register voters. Clinton won the Asian vote by nearly as wide of a margin as Obama did in 2012, even as blacks and Latinos peeled away from the Democratic coalition in 2016. 

Among the findings of a recent survey conducted by APIAVote, about 60 percent of Asian American voters say they disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing; 50 percent say they have not been contacted or don’t know if they’ve been contacted by Democrats; and 62 percent say they have not been contacted or don’t know if they’ve been contacted by Republicans.

“We believe that this information is crucial in accurately framing the narrative about the Asian-American electorate and providing detailed insight on how Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders stand on major national issues, how they view our political parties, and more importantly, how they feel about the upcoming midterm elections,” Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote.

“From what we’ve heard, after two years of anti-immigrant, anti-worker attacks, our community is paying attention – and is not happy about that (barrage), either,” says APALA's Yeh.

AAPI voters showed up to cast their ballots when early voting began last week.
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APA Labor Alliance selects new executive director

A DAUGHTER of refugees will helm one of the country's key labor organizations focusing on the needs of the Asian American and Pacific American communities.
The National Executive Board of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) announced that Alvina Yeh has been selected to serve as the organization’s next Executive Director.

“Ever since I became involved, I have always found a sense of community in APALA that you can’t get anywhere else," said Yeh. "With such a supportive National Executive Board and staff, I am excited to hit the ground running this June, especially in a progressive space that is a leader in the resistance needed in the AAPI and labor communities.”

Alvina Yeh

Originally from Colorado, Yeh has been an APALA member with the Washington, DC chapter for eight years and has served most recently as a chapter leader. There, she has helped facilitate and organize civic engagement programming in Virginia, various education roundtables, membership engagement events, and bolstered the DC chapter’s efforts with APALA priorities around supporting local Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers and communities.

Her prior experiences at State Voices, Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), and political campaigns, including the 2012 Obama presidential campaign, have also uniquely positioned her as an expert in electoral strategy, program management, strategic planning, and organizational development.

Yeh is the daughter of Chinese refugees who fled the Vietnam War. Her experiences as a child of immigrants and growing up in a house that welcomed and supported refugees and immigrants have shaped her values and commitment to community. Yeh's career demonstrates her deep passion for empowering traditionally disenfranchised groups to become active participants in our democracy.

“In trying times like these, we need leaders to step up and prioritize movement building and intersectional organizing,” stated Johanna Puno Hester, APALA National President and Assistant Executive Director of the United Domestic Workers, AFSCME Local 3930.

“Alvina brings years of coalition-building experience for amazing year round civic engagement, and knows how to organize on the ground to engage the AAPI community and broader people of color in the civic and political process. She is a fierce advocate for our community, and I am confident she will lead APALA and IAPALA to the next level.”
Outgoing Executive Director Gregory A. Cendana, added, “I’ve known Alvina for almost a decade, and her vision, leadership, and track record show she's not only capable but the kind of leader we need in this political moment.”