Tag Archives: H-2B visa
Shorthanded – Shrimp industry fears worker shortage
The Texas shrimp industry is celebrating a handful of recent legislative wins while also dreading next year’s shrimp season if changes aren’t made to the seasonal foreign worker visa program.
The Brownsville-Port Isabel shrimp fleet starts this season, which opens today, without enough workers. Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, estimates that 70 percent of the fleet’s 140 trawlers will head out to the Gulf shorthanded. >click to read<10:51
Texas shrimpers calling on government to authorize more migrant workers
Brownsville – “Buy American and hire American” is a popular slogan often said by President Donald Trump. While many Texas shrimping companies agree with the concept, they claim it’s simply not realistic. The shrimping season is kicking off Saturday with a crippled workforce. Starting off the shrimping season, Oscar Bautista and his crew prepare their nets and tie loose ends as they gear up to sail in uncharted territory.,,, Bautista is referring to the H-2B visa, a migrant worker permit capped yearly at 66,000 people. Half of those permits get issued between March and October. The problem is that the cap was reached within weeks by other industries in need. Life-long shrimper Greg Londrei says that many people across the country are in the same pickle. When the government doesn’t increase the number of visas, companies say that they are left to hire inexperienced American workers who, they claim, pose a greater risk to their bottom line. click here to read the story 12:00 
