{"id":23189,"date":"2019-04-01T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=23189"},"modified":"2019-04-01T14:52:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T18:52:01","slug":"governor-hogan-applauds-release-of-h-2b-visas-to-help-marylands-crab-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2019\/04\/01\/governor-hogan-applauds-release-of-h-2b-visas-to-help-marylands-crab-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Hogan Applauds Release of H-2B Visas to Help Maryland\u2019s Crab Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calls\u00a0for Permanent, Long-term Fix to Program<\/em><\/h3>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 <\/strong>Governor Larry Hogan today praised the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release an additional 30,000 visas through the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program. H-2B workers are critical for Maryland\u2019s seasonal blue crab industry and sweet corn processors. The governor also renewed his call for a permanent, long-term fix, such as reinstating the Returning Worker Exemption, expanding the current Seafood Exemption, or eliminating the cap altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased that the federal government has heeded our calls to raise the cap on the H-2B visa program, allowing our iconic processing houses on the Eastern Shore to open for business this year,\u201d said Governor Hogan. \u201cThis is good news for this year, but we still need a long-term solution to this problem. I am calling on Congress to do the right thing and take action to ensure our crab houses have the workers they need to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 14, Governor Hogan\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0on federal administration officials to reverse the 2018 decision to limit the number of visas available through the H-2B program and released a short film,\u00a0The Watermen of Hoopers Island<\/a>, which highlighted the threat that arbitrary federal visa policy changes posed to the crabbing industry. On Friday, Governor Hogan discussed the issue during a meeting with Maryland\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA second year of hardship could permanently damage Maryland\u2019s seafood industry, causing these iconic family businesses to close and having a devastating impact on jobs in our state,\u201d said the governor in March. \u201cThe loss of these jobs and processors will threaten the livelihoods of commercial crabbers and watermen, and jeopardize our $355 million seafood industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

VIDEO: The Watermen of Hoopers Island<\/a><\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter\u00a0@MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calls\u00a0for Permanent, Long-term Fix to Program ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 Governor Larry Hogan today praised the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release an additional 30,000 visas through the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program. H-2B workers are critical for Maryland\u2019s seasonal blue crab industry and sweet corn processors. The governor also renewed his  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23193,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23189\/revisions\/23193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}