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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:39 AM Jul 2018

Texas shrimp industry to lose $1M per day due to immigrant visa cap

Source: The Hill

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 07/17/18 10:18 AM EDT

The Trump administration’s cap on U.S. visas for seasonal foreign workers will cost Texas’s shrimp industry millions of dollars, according to a trade group.

Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, told the Brownsville Herald that the Brownsville-Port Isabel shrimp fleet has started this season without enough workers. Hance estimates that 70 percent of the fleet is heading out to the Gulf short-staffed this season.

According to Hance, the state’s shrimp industry heavily depends on hiring workers by using H-2B visas, which businesses can typically obtain if they can establish that there are not enough American workers able or willing to fill temporary positions. She blamed the shortage of workers in the shrimp industry on Congress's failure to renew a cap exemption on returning workers this year.

Hance said the shrimp industry is short 750 workers and is being crippled by the federal cap. She added it will cost the state industry $1 million per day, according to The Associated Press.

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Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/397391-texas-shrimp-industry-to-lose-1m-per-day-due-to-immigrant-visa

17 replies

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Highlight:

Texas shrimp industry to lose $1M per day due to immigrant visa cap (Original Post) DonViejo Jul 2018 OP

WINNING! dhol82 Jul 2018 #1

This is actually an area that I'd say that non-facetiously metalbot Jul 2018 #17

I am sure that there are plenty of good old native born Merican guys in Houston and Austin LiberalArkie Jul 2018 #2

Especially all them Faux viewers! sandensea Jul 2018 #5

Silly shrimpers should have just opened exclusive golf resorts. Freethinker65 Jul 2018 #3

anything GOP can do to help drive Texas to a purple/blue state, I am 100% for beachbum bob Jul 2018 #4

Might be good for the shrimp stocks though exboyfil Jul 2018 #6

That's a tough job and going out short Phoenix61 Jul 2018 #7

Perhaps they should recruit shrimpers from Trump hotels. Scalded Nun Jul 2018 #8

Message auto-removed Name removed Jul 2018 #9

...entice the younger American men... OnlinePoker Jul 2018 #12

Message auto-removed Name removed Jul 2018 #13

The impact will be much bigger than $1M Major Nikon Jul 2018 #10

Yep and that's me mountain grammy Jul 2018 #14

Corporations will just start to 'lease' thousands more 20 cent an hour USA prison slaves. Sunlei Jul 2018 #11

Fake News! There is no shortage. Mar-a-lago can get all the H-2B's it wants! JustABozoOnThisBus Jul 2018 #15

What that will cause duforsure Jul 2018 #16

dhol82

(9,353 posts)

1. WINNING!

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:40 AM

Jul 2018

metalbot

(1,058 posts)

17. This is actually an area that I'd say that non-facetiously

Reply to dhol82 (Reply #1)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 03:12 PM

Jul 2018

If our shrimp prices are being held artificially low by the use of imported low wage workers, maybe it really means that shrimp should be more expensive? And if that means that people eat less of them, and it hurts the shrimp industry, then so be it? An H-2B visa is basically a "let's bring in a laborer from a third world country and give him a barely minimum wage job that he can't quit or get fired from without getting kicked out of the country" visa.

The DU reaction to this is purely political in nature. If the Obama administration had restricted the number of H-2B visas granted to Texas shrimpers, the reaction here would have been a combination of "screw those right wing bastards" and "why should we be subsidizing shrimp with low wages?" and "finally, we're going to stop abusing immigrant workers who can't complain about unsafe working conditions".

Just in case anyone would like to take a quick trip back in time:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10024456583

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1109320

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1014405570

LiberalArkie

(15,727 posts)

2. I am sure that there are plenty of good old native born Merican guys in Houston and Austin

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:44 AM

Jul 2018

just jumping at the opportunity to do those jobs.

sandensea

(21,650 posts)

5. Especially all them Faux viewers!

Reply to LiberalArkie (Reply #2)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:49 AM

Jul 2018

You know how they love getting off the couch.

Freethinker65

(10,033 posts)

3. Silly shrimpers should have just opened exclusive golf resorts.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:48 AM

Jul 2018

I understand Mar a Lago had no problems securing extra visas for seasonal workers

beachbum bob

(10,437 posts)

4. anything GOP can do to help drive Texas to a purple/blue state, I am 100% for

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:49 AM

Jul 2018

this is happening all over america in agricultural areas than need seasonal workers

karma is a bitch

exboyfil

(17,865 posts)

6. Might be good for the shrimp stocks though

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:51 AM

Jul 2018

I wonder if they know that Trump may get his Visas approved.

Phoenix61

(17,009 posts)

7. That's a tough job and going out short

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:55 AM

Jul 2018

handed isn't safe. It's dangerous enough when you have a full seasoned crew.

Scalded Nun

(1,236 posts)

8. Perhaps they should recruit shrimpers from Trump hotels.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 10:57 AM

Jul 2018

I hear he does not have immigrant staffing issues.

Response to DonViejo (Original post)

Name removed Message auto-removed

OnlinePoker

(5,725 posts)

12. ...entice the younger American men...

Reply to Name removed (Reply #9)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 12:09 PM

Jul 2018

Women need not apply?

Response to OnlinePoker (Reply #12)

Name removed Message auto-removed

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)

10. The impact will be much bigger than $1M

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 11:12 AM

Jul 2018

Shimp will cost more, which impacts everyone who eats it. That $1M loss in the industry will translate to lost revenue and jobs when that $1M was spent in the local communities, which will just keep rippling downstream.

mountain grammy

(26,642 posts)

14. Yep and that's me

Reply to Major Nikon (Reply #10)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 01:06 PM

Jul 2018

But I’ll pay more and eat less.

Sunlei

(22,651 posts)

11. Corporations will just start to 'lease' thousands more 20 cent an hour USA prison slaves.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 11:26 AM

Jul 2018

cheaper then the 7.25 an hour rate they have to pay the businesses who bring in visa work gangs.

USA slavery is still legal of course.
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,362 posts)

15. Fake News! There is no shortage. Mar-a-lago can get all the H-2B's it wants!

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 01:09 PM

Jul 2018

No hiring those pesky Americans for our president's industry.

duforsure

(11,885 posts)

16. What that will cause

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2018, 01:29 PM

Jul 2018

Is many more voters turning on ted cruz , so this is backfiring badly on the republicans , and especially now as the people in his district are turning quickly from him and the republican trump party now after everything he's doing to hurt them with . Health care, and their tax scam , more than enough to vote cruz out of office. Now tariffs.

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