US launches guest staff program for Haiti, Central America | Migration News

The number of H-2B visas will increase by 20,000, including 6,500 for Central America and Haiti, as migration increases.

The United States is expanding guest staff program With an additional 20,000 visas, they are available to guest seasonal agricultural workers as a number of migrants wishing to enter the country. nails at its southern boundary.

Additional H-2B bisak In addition to assigning 66,000 visas a year, a U.S. official told Reuters on Monday. Formal announcement of the increase, including 6,500 visas for Guatemalan workers, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti are expected until March 31 later in the day.

H-2B expansion see programs, used to employ landscapers, housekeepers, hotel workers, and construction and carnival workers, among others, comes as a U.S. labor market. deficiencies remain COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House has called for efforts to create legal channels for migrants to come to the United States record number of migrants They have been arrested on the southern border under the administration of President Joe Biden.

Even though 6,500 visas are used, only a fraction of migrants trying to reach the U.S. are indicated. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 700,000 migrants from those four countries in 2021.

The additional 20,000 visas are just under 22,000 made available in the second half of the fiscal year.

The road administration was hit earlier this month Agreement with the Mexican government Restoring the controversial Trump-era policy that forced asylum seekers to wait in U.S. courts in Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)It was relaunched on December 6, under the name “Gesture in Mexico.” When it is fully up and running again, the program will see it people returned to Mexico Through seven border crossings in the U.S. states of California, Arizona and Texas.

About 70,000 people, including children, were sent to Mexico under the MPP, and Biden initially wanted to end his commitment to change some of his predecessor Donald Trump’s toughest anti-immigration policies.

Following criticism from rights groups, the Biden administration revoked 6,000 H-2B visas for the three Central American countries in the second half of the fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30, but failed to meet all those milestones.

The addition of Haiti comes after Biden’s decision expelled some Haitians after thousands of people arrived in South Texas in September. The country has suffered political instability and violence in July following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, as well as natural disasters.

The new one comes after a fatal truck accident Earlier this month, 54 migrants were killed and 54 others injured in southern Mexico.