Trump deals Haiti another blow, ending participation in guest worker program

The Trump administration has slapped Haiti again.

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As of Thursday, Haitian farmers and other laborers seeking to come to the United States as temporary, seasonal workers under the federal H-2A and H-2B guest worker program, will no longer be eligible.

The temporary workers’ visa has for decades allowed hundreds of U.S. farmers, hoteliers and other business owners to hire thousands of foreign seasonal workers.

But citing Haitians’ “extremely high rates of refusal... high levels of fraud and abuse and a high rate of overstaying the terms of their H-2 admission,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Haiti’s inclusion on the lists of eligible countries for 2018 “is no longer in the U.S. interest.” It also announced that the English-speaking Central American country of Belize will be banned, as well as Samoa in the central South Pacific Ocean.

“Eliminating this visa eliminates the only lawful channel some Haitians have to come temporarily work in the United States,” said Michael Clemens, an economist with the Center for Global Development, who has studied Haiti-U.S. labor migration since 2010. 

“That is not the way to address illegal migration. That is a way to encourage illegal migration.”

The decision, set to be published Thursday in the Federal Registrar, comes amid a push by the Trump administration to restrict immigration, and a public outcry over the president’s alleged characterization of Haiti and Haitians in recent weeks.

Source :Miami Herald