{"id":24137,"date":"2020-03-05T14:56:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T19:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=24137"},"modified":"2020-03-05T14:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T19:58:46","slug":"federal-administration-agrees-to-release-additional-h-2b-visas-to-help-marylands-seafood-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2020\/03\/05\/federal-administration-agrees-to-release-additional-h-2b-visas-to-help-marylands-seafood-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Administration Agrees to Release Additional H-2B Visas to Help Maryland\u2019s Seafood Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>Announcement Comes After Weeks of Hogan Administration Urging Federal Action<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD<\/strong>\u2014After weeks of urging federal officials to take action, Governor Larry Hogan today praised the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s announcement that it will release an additional 35,000 visas through the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program. This will help protect Maryland\u2019s $355 million seafood industry and supply chain, particularly ahead of the start of the blue crab harvest season on April 1.<\/p>\n<p>On January 21, Governor Hogan\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/governor.maryland.gov\/2020\/01\/21\/governor-hogan-urges-federal-officials-to-lift-cap-on-h-2b-visas-to-help-seafood-industry-and-seasonal-employers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/governor.maryland.gov\/2020\/01\/21\/governor-hogan-urges-federal-officials-to-lift-cap-on-h-2b-visas-to-help-seafood-industry-and-seasonal-employers\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1583523143014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF8wbTzmUsKccVvN-Xsw4rhapOjgQ\">wrote to federal administration officials<\/a>\u00a0urging them to release these critical visas, and calling for a long-term permanent solution to provide certainty to rural Maryland and in particular the Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am pleased to report that our efforts to make additional H-2B visas available to help our state\u2019s seafood industry have again proven successful,\u201d said Governor Hogan. \u201cWhile we still urgently need a long-term solution to this problem, this announcement is welcome relief for our state\u2019s iconic crab processing houses and seafood industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maryland\u2019s Best Seafood, a marketing program within the Maryland Department of Agriculture,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2020\/03\/02\/survey-shows-impact-of-h-2b-visa-program-on-maryland-seafood-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2020\/03\/02\/survey-shows-impact-of-h-2b-visa-program-on-maryland-seafood-industry\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1583523143014000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGGOXTC2Q9iXQh5hqrITXnXvNJAwg\">released a survey<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week measuring the economic impact of the state\u2019s crab industry and the importance of the federal H-2B temporary visa program.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All eight crab processors surveyed agreed that the current lottery system for awarding temporary visa requests creates uncertainty that hurts their businesses, and that limiting the number of available H-2B visas hurts Maryland\u2019s seafood industry as a whole.<\/li>\n<li>Seven of the eight crab companies indicated that they would not open for the 2020 crab season without adequate H-2B workers. The shuttering of these processors would severely impact the supply of \u201cTrue Blue\u201d Maryland crabmeat, as well as the livelihoods of American workers who rely on the industry for employment, including commercial watermen, restaurants, and local businesses.<\/li>\n<li>Without these seasonal workers, the survey showed that income for watermen would drop by $12.5 million; processors would lose $37-$49 million in sales; Maryland would lose 914-1,367 jobs; and the overall hit to the state\u2019s economy could be $100-$150 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the third straight year Governor Hogan has been successful in pushing the federal government to release additional visas through the H-2B program.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">###<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Follow Maryland&#8217;s Best Seafood on Twitter <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/mdsbestseafood\">@MDsBestSeafood<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Announcement Comes After Weeks of Hogan Administration Urging Federal Action ANNAPOLIS, MD\u2014After weeks of urging federal officials to take action, Governor Larry Hogan today praised the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s announcement that it will release an additional 35,000 visas through the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program. This will help protect Maryland\u2019s $355 million seafood<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2020\/03\/05\/federal-administration-agrees-to-release-additional-h-2b-visas-to-help-marylands-seafood-industry\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24137","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\/24137","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=24137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24140,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24137\/revisions\/24140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}