Please copy onto your company letterhead and personalize in order to prevent numerous Members of Congress from receiving the same letter. Bold and underline as the current disastrous H-2B situation moves you. Stay professional but be absolutely dogged and persistent in reaching out by letter, phone, e-mail and (especially) in person in district offices to get a commitment from your Member of Congress and both Senators. If you do not get a commitment on the first contact, keep calling and emailing until you get a definitive yes or no answer. Remember, these elected officials work FOR YOU – it is their job to give you an answer.
Date
Dear ______,
I am writing to you because the future viability of my business is in question as a result of my inability to obtain a legal workforce for my business.
USCIS announced today that the second half cap has been met. It plans to hold a lottery for the petitions it received through February 27. These petitions represent roughly 47,000 workers. The total number of petitions submitted, however, was for over 95,000 workers, meaning that without cap relief, the demand exceeded supply by at least 50,000 workers.
My petition is not included in the lottery. The government should has been permitted to pick winners and losers at its sole discretion.
I cannot stress enough the catastrophic situation this creates for my company. If I do not receive my H-2B workers this year, there is a distinct possibility my company will not stay in business. Since I refuse to hire undocumented workers, where will I turn for labor? I have already advertised for US workers and so far ____ workers have responded to the ads. This is despite offering numerous financial incentives.
Many people will say, why don’t you just pay more? Surely U.S. workers will apply if you offered $10 more per hour. This is not possible. The largest cost in my company’s budgetis labor and given that I compete against those who hire unauthorized workers, I amlimited by what I can charge customers. Price and quality are the main purchase decision drivers for customers. A legal workforce is rarely a criterion.
Fortunately, there is an opportunity for Congress to fix this disastrous situation.
It is imperative that Senator ______make a personal request to Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Thad Cochran (or his Chief of Staff Bruce Evans) and Chuck Grassleyto include the H2B cap relief language from the April 2017 Omnibus in the upcoming FY 18 Omnibus. (only changing may to shall). Your Congressman should take the language below to the members listed above.
Section 214(g)(1)(B) (8 U.S.C 1184(g)(1)(B) is amended as follows:
(C) Notwithstanding the numerical limitation set forth above, the Secretaryof Homeland Security, upon receipt of DOL certifications that sufficient United States workers who are willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary nonagricultural labor are not available, shall increase the total number of visas issued under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(b) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(b)) in such fiscal year by a number sufficient to fulfill those DOL certifications; provided, that the total number of visas above the numerical limitation set forth above shall be not more than the highest number of H–2B nonimmigrants who participated in the H–2B returning worker program in any fiscal year in which returning workers were exempt from such numerical limitation. Such increase shall be effective as if implemented at the beginning of each fiscal year.
Without our H-2B workers, we will be unable to meet our obligations and will be forced to default on contracts, fail our clients, lay off dedicated full-time U.S. workers, cancel orders with our U.S. vendors, and,in the worst case scenario, close a business in which we have invested our hearts and souls for __ years.
Please help us by demanding an immediate release of additional H-2B worker visas so that ____ and other affected American businesses can continue to provide for our American workers and their families.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Sincerely,