Sen. Jeff Flake (R–Ariz.) has proposed a bill that could revolutionize the way clubs fill their employment needs. The legislation, the Willing Workers and Willing Employers Act, is a 10-year pilot program that would create a new guest worker visa for lower skilled jobs.
What Does the Program Do?
If passed, the law would:
- Allow workers with less than a bachelor’s degree to enter the country for year-round, non-farm work.
- Provide a sliding cap of visas to meet the actual economic need, with the number of visas being between 65,000 and 85,000.
- Require each employer who wished to use a worker under this visa to show there were no Americans willing to take the job.
- Allow workers to change jobs and go to another employer who qualified to participate in the program.
- Not hold employers responsible for workers’ travel or housing or for providing a fixed number of hours worked.
In its current form, the bill would only apply to counties and metropolitan areas where the unemployment rate is less than five percent. Currently, 42 percent of counties and 52 percent of metropolitan areas would qualify, reports Immigration Works USA, a national organization seeking to advance immigration reform.
A New Approach
What makes this bill unique from other immigration reform efforts is that it creates a market-based foreign worker program that ensures no displacement of American workers while providing clubs a new place to go for seasonal help. The program strategically targets the foreign employment gap between seasonal workers and highly skilled H-1B workers as well.
This pilot program would also include a study to ensure that these new visa holders did not adversely impact wages, employment, economic growth and government service benefits. Additionally, all employers who wanted these workers would be required to use the government’s E-Verify Program. And, the bill provides much-needed flexibility for employers. If an employee leaves his position, the employer can hire his replacement immediately without going through the government once again.
Creating Common Ground
Immigration has been a highly contested issue in the U.S., often polarizing the two major parties as well as Americans nationwide. For years, NCA and our allies on the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition and H-2B Workforce Coalition have worked to help enact smart legislation that would offer clubs a responsible solution to filling their staffing needs. Both of these coalitions have focused on broadening the pool for potential foreign workers who can enter the country legally to take on these jobs when no Americans can be found. Due to the contentious political climate, even the most serious attempts to reform immigration have been stonewalled. Consequently, there is little chance this legislation will be enacted in an election year.
However, Flake’s bill could be a breakthrough in the immigration worker debate as it offers common ground that can satisfy Republicans and Democrats. Thus far the senator has found positive responses from his colleagues on both sides of the aisle for his bill because it is a pilot program with a specific study commissioned to see how these visa holders would impact American workers—if at all. Therefore, it is possible that the bill will be passed and signed into law in 2017—regardless of who wins in November.
Phillip Mike is NCA’s senior communications manager.