The Trump administration has approved allowing employers to import 65,000 additional H-2B visa workers this year, bringing the total annual inflow to 131,000 foreign workers competing for seasonal jobs that Americans could fill.
The decision doubles the congressionally mandated baseline of 66,000 H-2B visas. According to Rosemary Jenks, founder of the Immigration Accountability Project, the administration initially announced 35,000 additional visas in December but expanded the number after business owners complained.
They announced that they were going to release 35,000 [in December], but apparently business owners have complained, so they're going to release all [66,000].
Jenks did not mince words about what this means for American workers:
That's a massive number of cheap foreign workers competing with Americans for jobs and suppressing wages.
As reported by Breitbart News, the H-2B program operates on a simple premise: employers must demonstrate they cannot find American workers and must pay H-2B workers the same wages they would pay Americans. In practice, this creates a perverse incentive structure.
Employers offer wages so low that no American can realistically accept them, then claim they cannot find domestic workers. Jenks exposed the absurdity plainly:
The employers are supposed to show that they can't find an American [for the job], and they're supposed to pay the same wages to the H-2B as they would to Americans. But if they're offering, $11 an hour, which is roughly $24,000 a year … that is not anywhere near enough money for any [American] to live in this country, and employers [claim to be] surprised that they can't find American workers to do these jobs.
The wages tell the story. H-2B workers earn $10, $11, sometimes $12 an hour. These rates have not kept pace with inflation. Some employers raised wages in 2022 only to cut them back again.
Twenty-four thousand dollars a year. In an economy where rent consumes half of a working-class paycheck in most metro areas, employers express bewilderment that Americans won't take these jobs.
Business groups frame the issue as a labor shortage crisis beyond their control. AmericanHort, an industry group that requested additional visas in December, offered the standard justification:
The H-2B program places many requirements on employers to recruit U.S. workers, and our members try to find as many U.S. workers as they can. In these unprecedented times, there are simply not enough workers to meet the seasonal workforce needs of U.S. employers. The most current employment data illustrate the workforce struggles of seasonal businesses nationwide.
The argument assumes its own conclusion. If wages rose to market-clearing levels, workers would appear. The "shortage" exists because employers prefer foreign labor at suppressed wages to American labor at competitive wages.
The restaurant sector illustrates what happens when cheap labor becomes scarce. Median pretax income for restaurants has dropped more than 30 percent since 2019. Median restaurant company stock fell 16 percent last year. Oxford Economics projects wages in the sector will accelerate from 3.7 percent this year to 5.6 percent by 2027. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat, acknowledged the dynamic in a mid-January interview with News Nation:
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat, acknowledged the dynamic in a mid-January interview with News Nation:
We have to look at all the different factors, even the immigration policy, where we have a million and a half less [migrant] people in the workforce right now, it's causing more overtime and having to hire people at higher wages. These are all upward pressure[s] on people's prices.
Suozzi framed higher wages as a problem. For American workers, higher wages are the point.
The H-2B expansion arrives as Congress considers measures that could push the annual cap beyond 170,000 workers by 2027. The Economic Policy Institute estimates the current H-2B population at approximately 170,000.
This parallels the larger H-1B program, which places roughly one million foreign workers in white-collar jobs. Both programs share a core feature: they allow employers to access labor pools willing to work for less than Americans would accept, suppressing wages across entire sectors.
Analysis of government data by Alan Tonelson found declining wages in sectors where migrant labor is most common. The pattern holds across industries and decades.
Since 1990, the combination of illegal immigration and expanded legal visa programs has reshaped the American labor market. Working-class Americans—particularly those without college degrees—have watched their bargaining power erode as employers gained access to foreign workers with no attachment to American wage standards or labor expectations.
The decision reflects tension within the coalition that elected Trump. Business interests want access to cheap labor. Working-class voters who delivered Trump's victory want less immigration and higher wages. These goals conflict directly.
Congressional action on H-2B visas has historically enjoyed bipartisan support from members responsive to employer interests. The budget that included the option for 65,000 additional visas passed with support from both Democratic and Republican members. A pending budget measure could expand the program further.
The 2026 midterms will test whether voters notice the gap between border enforcement rhetoric and visa expansion policy. The administration's border shutdown has drawn attention and praise. The H-2B expansion has drawn less scrutiny.
If the pending budget measure passes, employers could access more than 170,000 H-2B workers annually by 2027—nearly triple the congressionally mandated baseline. Each visa represents a job an American could hold at a wage an American could accept.
The math is straightforward. More workers competing for the same jobs means lower wages. Employers benefit. Workers lose. The program's design guarantees this outcome.
Every policy choice involves tradeoffs. The H-2B program trades American workers' wages and job opportunities for cheaper labor costs for seasonal employers. That trade benefits one group at the direct expense of another.
Employers call it a labor shortage. Workers call it wage suppression. The difference depends on where you stand.
At $11 an hour, American workers cannot afford to take these jobs. At $11 an hour, foreign workers on temporary visas will. The program exists to maintain that gap.
One hundred thirty-one thousand H-2B visas this year. Potentially 170,000 or more next year. Each one a job filled at a wage no American can live on—by design.
