White House H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce Publishes New Report

Yesterday the White House H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce published a report addressing the visa program that allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire noncitizens to perform nonagricultural labor. As the Report acknowledges, workers in the H-2B program “face structural disincentives to reporting or leaving abusive conditions, and often lack power to exercise their rights in the face of exploitative employment situations.”

The new Report follows last month’s issuance of proposed new rules for the H-2A and H-2B programs by the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security that would incorporate protections for workers who take collective action to organize their workplace and introduce greater oversight of employers who take advantage of workers.

The Report cites to 2018 study by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., and Penn Carey Law’s Transnational Legal Clinic, Engendering Exploitation: Gender Inequality in U.S. Labor Migration Programs, which found that the majority of H-2A workers paid illegal recruitment fees. 

The Taskforce makes a number of policy recommendations, including improving workers’ access to information and increasing transparency in the program.

A full copy of the Report, Strengthening Protections for H-2B Temporary Workers, is available here.

IE