Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I wish to speak briefly on an amendment I have filed regarding a crisis we are experiencing in the H-2B visas.

In North Carolina, we have a very large seafood industry, and we have a crisis that is shared by a number of other States that have the seafood industry with respect to the availability of H-2B visas, and the busy time is just about to start in a couple of weeks. It is the worst possible time for this industry.

We literally have jobs that have been created by people such as Don Cross and his brother and their Pamlico Packing Company in Grantsboro, NC. They simply can't find workers to do this job. It is going to ruin their business, and it is unacceptable. These are jobs these folks have created, like the Crosses, and they can't be filled. The jobs are waiting to be filled.

It is affecting other businesses we have in the shrimp and crab industries, but it is also affecting other businesses--will affect other businesses--such as grocery stores, restaurants, and other industries, like tourism, across the country.

The problem I have--and the nature of the amendment I will speak to briefly--but I have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to ask a series of questions, and I simply haven't received answers. That is why I decided to offer an amendment--or to file the amendment.

DHS has refused to issue more work visas, even though the statutory cap of used visas has most likely not been reached. DHS claims the cap has been reached, and that is really odd because it is unusually early for them to take that position.

This is what I think the real truth is. Not every business applying for these visas is using them. DHS normally approves more visas so we make it more likely that we reach the cap, but we don't believe they have done that this year.

That is why we have asked for an audit, to make sure we know how many applications were actually approved, how many visas are actually used by the State, within the State, and how many of those visas are actually putting legal, migrant, immigrant workers into these jobs.

This year, they haven't even done an audit. We simply want to know why.

I think DHS is playing games with the numbers, and I demand answers. DHS seems eager to help the illegal population get acclimated, but they don't seem to place a priority on American businesses that need these people to come and work in our seafood processing facilities, not only in North Carolina like Don Cross's Pamlico Packing Company but packing companies across the coast.

I have had a discussion with a number of Members on the other side of the aisle. They share our concerns, and we are all working trying to simply get the answers.

So what my amendment does is--until we get the answers, until we solve the problem, we want to suspend the travel for all DHS employees to government conferences and symposiums until the Agency provides more transparent data as to how the H-2B program is being administered for this fiscal year and for the three previous fiscal years.

I want answers and I want action. We have businesses in North Carolina and across the country in the coastal States that need these workers, and we want answers now.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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