Some right-wingers snap at Alaska GOP Congressional delegation on foreign workers

Fox News yacker Tucker Carlson thinks that Sen. Dan Sullivan should be defeated in his re-election bid for the U.S. Senate. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is not up until 2022, deserves the same fate.

Why?

Because Sullivan and Murkowski believe that hiring foreign workers for cannery jobs and other seasonal positions in Alaska is essential to keep businesses in operation. The Alaska senators joined seven other GOP senators on a chain letter that asks Trump to avoid restricting the flow of foreign workers to the U.S. under the H-2A and H-B2 visa programs. The second is the most important one for the seafood business.

Others in the Republican party whose states are less dependent on federal workers want to stop all immigrant work visas, which appears to be Carlson’s point of view.

Carlson said Sullivan, Murkowski and the seven others should be “replaced by people who care about unemployed Americans.” But he took pains to say this should be in GOP primaries, not the general election, where a Democrat or independent would be the alternative.

Sullivan is running for re-election this year, while Murkowski’s term is up in 2022.

Carlson said he wasn’t complaining about hiring foreigners to fill seasonal jobs picking lettuce or grapes, but about jobs as doctors, dentists, cyber-security officials, etc. that Americans would love to fill if given the chance. Carlson didn’t mention temporary jobs on the slime line or in landscaping, hotels, etc.

The Senate letter refers to the foreign workers as “guest workers,” and mentions that more than 5,000 employers in 49 states need these relatively low-cost foreign workers to stay in business. The senators claimed that many Americans “may not be qualified or able to perform” the jobs filled by the guests.

Plus, the work the guests do is seasonal and Americans don’t want to do it, the senators hinted. They also complained that the unemployment benefits in the federal bailout bill they voted for are creating a disincentive for Americans to work.

Murkowski, Sullivan et al. want to have it both ways. They can say they support expanded unemployment benefits, which they did by voting for the bill, and they can say they oppose expanded unemployment benefits, but it was part of a larger package they endorsed.

The Alaska seafood industry relies on foreign workers and the Alaska Congressional delegation has long supported bringing in more foreign workers to keep the canneries going. The canneries would have to pay a lot more to fill all jobs with Americans and they would have to improve working conditions, which could make their business uneconomic.

Here is an overview of the H-2B program.

Some of the leading U.S. employers using the H-2B program are in the Alaska seafood business. Overall, Alaska had 6,317 positions certified and Trident Seafoods was the top employer, with 1,868 H-2B employees, according to the labor department.

The right-wing site Breitbart attacked Rep. Don Young and 37 other House members for being part of the “cheap labor lobby” after signing onto a separate chain letter calling for more foreign workers at a time of mass unemployment in the U.S. The program allows wages to be undercut in the U.S., a claim that comes from the right and the left.

Young and fellow co-signers said that companies using the H-2B program “are required to hire any qualified American willing to take the job. We strongly support the requirement that able and willing Americans be afforded the right of first refusal for job openings before employers are allowed to hire H-2B workers and see no way in which the program, as currently constituted, is in conflict with the goals of the Proclamation” by Trump in April to support economic recovery.

The Trump administration said it would not allow more foreign workers to come to the U.S. under the so-called H-2B visa program, keeping the limit at 66,000 for the entire nation. But it also is making the rules more flexible to allow some workers to stay beyond the three-year maximum for H-2B visas.

"The H-2B visa cap remaining at 66,000 is a critical blow for seafood processors and the representatives in Congress who were pressing DHS officials to expand the cap again this year. In March, officials initially signed off on a plan to add 35,000 visas through the end of the fiscal year in September, but that was put on hold after the coronavirus emergency,” Seafood Source reported May 13.

There is a big split within the Republican Party over guest workers, with other GOP senators wanting all of these programs to be killed.

“Some conservatives have called on the administration to draw a hard line on all visa programs. Earlier this month, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) cited the high unemployment figures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in requesting a 60-day suspension on all guest worker programs,” Seafood Source said.