Decision to Stop Processing H2B Workers Threatens US Employers
Fort Washington, MD —Following the March 4, 2015 court ruling (Perez v. Perez, No.3:14-cv-682) a U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District of Florida granted an injunction against the USDOL with respect to the Department’s H-2B rules issued in 2008. As a result, The Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) have announced that they have stopped processing all applications for H-2B visas, effective March 5, 2015. For hundreds of employers across the country with applications pending before these agencies or not yet filed for 2015, this effectively shuts down the H-2B program.
“Our company depends on the H2B program for the seasonal workers it provides during our busiest times,” said Josh Denison, Operations Manager of Denison Landscaping, a family-owned business that serves the Washington Metropolitan Area. “Denison Landscaping will be crippled by this decision, not to mention the risk of company-wide layoffs of hundreds of people, affecting hundreds of families. This program supports 66,000 worker visas within the country and has the potential to put hundreds of thousands of American Citizens out of work.”
The Department of Labor and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services have manufactured this crisis, and they have the power to stop it.
Denison Landscaping and Nursery, Inc. was formed in 1973 and has grown from a three-man operation into one of the most successful landscaping companies in the Mid-Atlantic region. Denison Landscaping owns and operates growing nurseries totaling over 700 acres. They also own a 9 acre wholesale facility in Southern Maryland and a 40 acre Garden Center/Nursery in Fort Washington, Maryland.
CALL YOUR CONGRESSMEN, SENATORS AND LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES – SAVE THE H2B PROGRAM