Hospitality businesses short 2,100 foreign workers
Delays in processing work visas are creating labor shortages at restaurants and hospitality-related businesses in Maine.
Some 2,100 foreign workers have been held in up in H-2B visa program, which is handled by the Department of Homeland Security, the Kennebec Journal reported. The delays in hiring seasonal foreign workers are causing hospitality businesses to reduce restaurant days or limit room bookings.
Sarah Diment, owner of the 73-room Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, told the paper she typically hires nine people through the H-2B program, but hasn’t been able to get any visa workers this year. Her housekeeping staff will be down to five housekeepers in the next two weeks and she needs 12 to do the work.
“I’ve never been this understaffed since I’ve been here,” she said.
Congress authorized an expansion of the program this year to make up to 63,500 more visas available on top of the annual cap of 66,000 visa workers. But the expansion hasn’t been implemented yet.
On Mount Desert Island, where the hospitality industry is a major employer, Portland immigration attorney Marcus Jaynes in April told the Mount Desert Islander that businesses were hanging by a thread.
"I've had several clients just bail on the program because of the uncertainty,” Jaynes said. “But a lot of them don't have other options; they are going to be really stuck."
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