The H-2B visa program lets U.S. employers hire seasonal foreign workers in businesses like hospitality, landscaping, and seafood processing when no American workers are available.

Donald Trump’s hotels and resorts and golf courses operate with these visa holders.

But this year the caps have been met and employers who need workers from November to March – including Florida hotels and resorts, ski resorts, Alaskan seafood processors, Louisiana crawfish processors, Maryland crab processors – won’t get the workers they need for unfilled jobs.

Demand by employers is for 200,000 of these temporary workers through March.  For the last eight years Congress has authorized DHS to release up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas each year.

This program fills seasonal labor shortages in a legal, above-board way, and then the workers go back home. This is a key alternative to illegal immigration. The Trump administration should release the supplemental visas as soon as possible, and Congress should increase the cap.