Visa snag pinches Chesapeake crab industry
Troubles with the U.S. Department of Labor's visa program are causing ripple effects along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
Many seafood processors in Maryland and Virginia say they depend on foreign workers, mostly from Mexico, for seasonal labor. They pick crabs and shuck oysters, working under the agency's H-2B visa program.
But those processing facilities have been experiencing five- and six-week delays in bringing this season's workers on board because of holdups at the Department of Labor, they say. The issue has ramped up criticism of a program facing an uncertain future.
At the J.M. Clayton Seafood Co. in Cambridge, the 60 or so seasonal workers were supposed to arrive in time for the April 1 start of the crab season. When they didn't, Jack Brooks, one of the crab-picking house's owners, said he was lucky to find a few domestic workers to cover the work that had to be done.
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The company was dealt another stroke of luck when the chilly, inclement weather kept many watermen off the water. Still, the bureaucratic mess was exasperating, Brooks said.
“This is basically costing American jobs," he said, pointing to the statistic often cited by H-2B supporters that each visa granted supports four local jobs.
J.M. Clayton received its foreign workers about five weeks late. Since then, it has found itself taking on shipments of crabs from at least one rival that was unable to get them picked for a lack of workers, Brooks said.
The Obama administration only has itself to blame for the problems, said U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, who represents Maryland's Eastern Shore.
"Unfortunately this administration continues to try to kneecap this critical program by taking actions that hurt businesses across the Eastern Shore," he said.
A Department of Labor spokesman responded to an inquiry by pointing to a February press release.
A congressional spending bill last year increased the number of workers who could theoretically participate in the program, allowing visa recipients from each of the past three years not to be counted toward the 66,000-worker cap.
The Department of Labor implemented a 17-day "certification processing pause" to grapple with the changes, the release said. In the meantime, the number of applications it received during a three-week period in December and January doubled from the same span from the previous year.
To make matters worse, technical glitches with the agency's electronic filing system cropped up, lengthening the backlog.
The delays reverberated throughout the prized Chesapeake fishery. Watermen, particularly in Virginia, had no one to buy their freshly caught bushels. So, they simply stayed home.
“There’s plenty of crabs. You just can’t give them away," said Scott Wivell, a Cape Charles-based fisherman.
He reserves some of the blame for Virginia's crabbing regulations. The 2008 changes shortened the formerly year-round harvest, making the surviving crab houses dependent on foreign labor, Wivell said.
The visa program finds itself at a crossroads. Its biggest congressional benefactor, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, is retiring soon. It's unclear what will happen without her in Washington, Brooks said.
“She’s the reason we continue to have workers here," he said. "She understands we just don’t have the local workers to do these jobs anymore, especially on a seasonal basis.”
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