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IMMIGRATION

    IMMIGRATION

    Interfaith Panel Asks How to Create a ‘Culture of Welcome’

    Cyr asks leaders to push back against rise in anti-immigrant talk

    By

    EASTHAM — Katia DaCunha arrived in the U.S. with her two children in 2003 with five dollars to her name. She recalls meeting a police officer at the Miami airport who, despite not speaking her language, helped her exchange her Brazilian reais for dollars and use his cell phone to call her husband, who was waiting for her in Boston.

    Katia DaCunha, founder of Latinx in Action, a nonprofit that provides support to immigrants, speaks at a forum in Eastham on Nov. 7. (Photo by Karen Boujoukos)

    DaCunha calls that experience her welcome to America. She says the message was clear: she should never stop dreaming.

    DaCunha told her story at the Eastham library on Nov. 7 where she was on a panel of people from immigrant and faith-based Cape Cod communities. State Sen. Julian Cyr and State Rep.-elect Hadley Luddy also participated. The forum was organized by the Nauset Interfaith Association, clergy and lay leaders from 24 local congregations whose mission includes working for the common good and standing with the marginalized.

    Although the forum’s topic sounded simple enough — a response to the “fear and anger” the speakers had heard on Cape Cod in recent years regarding immigration — no simple answer emerged.

    That wasn’t the goal, said organizer Tom Ryan. “Having a culture of welcome is a lifetime task,” he said.

    “We have no idea what is coming but for sure it won’t be good,” said DaCunha at last week’s forum. “We have to plan for the worst.”

    DaCunha is the founder of Latinx in Action, a Hyannis nonprofit dedicated to helping immigrants on Cape Cod. She says that trust in local law enforcement has been dwindling. Many of her clients don’t report crimes committed against them because they’re afraid of being sent back home, she says, and in the eyes of many immigrants any police officer could be an ICE agent.

    “Many people didn’t have a good experience back home trusting the police,” DaCunha says. “So, they came to a country where they thought the law was something they could trust. But suddenly it’s not true.”

    Empathy and Economy

    Besides providing English classes and operating a food pantry on Saturdays, DaCunha’s organization runs support groups for immigrants, including for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. “We are all survivors from different traumas,” she says, naming violence, discrimination, and exploitation as common experiences among those who seek new lives here.

    “We need to strengthen our connections and relationships to the immigrant community in times ahead,” said Sen. Cyr, who worried that a second Trump administration would be more skilled at advancing an anti-immigration agenda than the first. “It’s safe to say the forecast is pretty turbulent,” Cyr told the Independent after the session.

    The library forum came less than 48 hours after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election, and panelists worried aloud about the promises of mass deportation that were a cornerstone of the Trump campaign. But this event was organized well before the election, said Ryan, after Cyr reached out to the interfaith group last spring to ask why they seemed to have gone quiet on immigrants’ rights.

    “I might be missing it, but our friends who were active in supporting safe communities have seemed to be unusually silent,” Cyr wrote in an April email to Mike Hager, a member of the interfaith group. “It would be helpful for those folks to now help push back on the hate and rhetoric we see on a regular basis.”

    Last fall, when shelters in Boston ran out of space and families were sent to live temporarily at the Harborside Suites in Yarmouth and the Ocean Park Inn in Eastham, a group led by Yarmouth resident Cheryl Ball protested outside her town hall with signs reading “Americans First” and “Citizens Before Illegals,” according to photographs posted online.

    In recent years, the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Cape has increased, Luddy told the gathering. Massachusetts is home to the third largest Haitian population in the U.S. after New York and Miami, according to the Immigration Policy Institute, and Cyr said Haitians are among new immigrants to the Cape. Still, the shift is not dramatic here, where less than 10 percent of Barnstable County’s population is nonwhite, according to the Census Bureau.

    Immigrants make up a large portion of the Cape’s workforce, especially during the summer, and according to Cyr, workers here on J-1 and H-2B visas frequently end up applying for green cards. Cyr said he now expects “quite a bit of uncertainty” regarding the availability of workers next summer.

    Most immigrants come to Cape Cod for work and find themselves struggling to keep up with the rising cost of housing, said Luddy, who is the CEO of the nonprofit Homeless Prevention Council. She called for greater empathy: “It’s important to be empathetic and listen to a person’s background and situation. Often folks are jumping to conclusions about a person without understanding the nuances of what brought them where they are.”

    A Role for Religious Leaders

    At the end of the forum, Ryan asked those present to write down ideas for action. Later, he told the Independent that many of those ideas were about education, not just in schools, but in the community as well.

    For Ryan, the role of faith communities in charting a response to anti-immigrant sentiment is obvious. He says he sees a “moral horizon” of “peace, hope, and love” on every page of the sacred texts of all the Abrahamic religions.

    Ryan believes that the hope emphasized by religions is analogous to the hope immigrants like DaCunha bring with them to America. “Our goal is to recreate a climate of community amongst us here on Cape Cod,” he says. “That includes homeless, refugees, immigrants, tourists, and vacationers.”

    DaCunha agreed, saying religious leadership is essential during times of uncertainty. “Leaders should be walking side by side with us,” she says. “There’s so much going on, and we need them to be present.”

    NATURALIZATION

    The Path to Citizenship Goes Through Eastham

    At the library, immigrants study the Declaration of Independence and discuss the concept of home

    By

    EASTHAM — The class was on lesson six, “Important Symbols in Our Lives,” at the start of the third session at the Eastham Public Library on May 16, and all four of immigration attorney Stephanie Souza’s students were finding it easy to describe the significance of the 13 stripes and 50 stars on the American flag.

    On Tuesday evenings through June 6, Souza is guiding groups of potential citizens through eras and milestones in U.S. history in preparation for the naturalization test. Her students are doing well, she said, but the last class is designed to calm some nerves: it will include video of an actual naturalization interview.

    Attendance in the class has ranged from four to seven participants. Some are just thinking about applying for citizenship. “Some people take a while to make that move,” she said.

    The class moved on to the history of the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty was described as symbolic of “the friendship between France and America.”

    “It should say North America,” pointed out Mauricio Zuleta, who is originally from Chile. Zuleta is one of several members of the class who hasn’t yet applied for citizenship but plans to.

    Zuleta works at two Provincetown guest houses, the Captain’s House and the Chicago House, and has been a U.S. resident for eight years. He hopes to avoid the green card renewal process when his expires in two years. But beyond that bureaucratic impetus, Zuleta’s main thinking, he said, has been, “Why not? My home is here.”

    The ineffable and various meanings of “home” came up in lesson seven, which covered U.S. geography. “What are the best things about the place where you live?” Souza asked.

    “My job,” said Delmar Bliss, whose work in stonemasonry takes him all around the Cape. “I work everywhere,” Bliss said, and he likes it — especially the satisfaction he gets from finishing a project.

    Born in Jamaica, Bliss has been living in the U.S. since 2007. He attends Souza’s class with his wife, Courtney Lawless Bliss, a massage therapist. She is already a citizen, Bliss said. “She’s just supporting me,” he said. “She thinks I need to learn about the culture of America.”

    The Blisses share the Fourth of July as a birthday, the class was amused to learn during a lesson on national holidays. Their 11-year-old daughter, Hattie, perused the library during the two-hour class, poking her head in once to let her parents know she’d found books to check out. “She reads a lot,” Bliss said.

    As the class moved swiftly through the curriculum, each lesson ended with a series of civics test questions included on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) list of 100 potential citizenship questions. During a naturalization interview, an applicant will be asked 10 questions selected at random from that list — and must answer six of those correctly to pass that part of the test.

    The questions require more than just rudimentary knowledge of U.S. civics: “How many amendments does the Constitution have?” is one. Answer: 27. Another asks, “If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?” Answer: the Speaker of the House.

    As participants took turns reading aloud, the others murmured the words to themselves in hushed tones. For some of them, it was practice for the English language test that is also part of the naturalization interview. The candidate’s ability to proficiently answer the USCIS officer’s formal questions during the oral interview is also considered part of the English test. Souza does not anticipate either test being an obstacle for anyone in the class: applicants’ English needs to be conversational to pass and, in this class, she said, everyone speaks English well.

    Souza works for the Community Action Committee of Cape Cod and the Islands, a Hyannis-based nonprofit that offers free legal assistance to immigrants. Her organization set out to collaborate with the Eastham library to offer the course because distance from naturalization resources can be a barrier for eligible citizens at this end of the Cape especially, she said.

    Souza had never taught a citizenship class before this one. (Her only teaching experience had been with grade schoolers in California years ago, she said.) She acquired the lesson plans from two volunteer citizenship class teachers in Hyannis.

    Sherman Wilson, originally from Jamaica, is a four-year Cape Cod resident who lives in Dennis and does housekeeping and maintenance in Provincetown. He found out about the Eastham class when he met with Souza at her office after deciding to pursue citizenship. He filed his application on March 31 and heard back from USCIS on May 5. He was surprised his application went through so fast — his naturalization interview will take place in June.

    Souza said she also found the quick turnaround time surprising when she started practicing immigration law in 2021. “I’m finding that most of my clients are becoming citizens within three or four months” of applying, she said.

    That’s one thing she wishes more people knew — that the naturalization process isn’t necessarily as drawn out as some expect, and that there’s free legal aid available for those eligible and interested.

    Three weeks into the six-session citizenship course, Souza and the participants swept through lesson plans apace. As they reached the end of a unit and went over its corresponding civics test questions, Souza put the class through a multi-century review encompassing questions about the Declaration of Independence, the War of 1812, and principles of checks and balances. As she fired off questions, the class sprang to answer right away.

    “They’re good!” Souza said.

    On May 31 at 2 p.m., U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will hold a nationwide virtual engagement session where it will discuss possible redesigns of the naturalization test. Registration is on the citizenship resource center area of the USCIS website.

    IMMIGRATION & COVID

    Immigrants at Risk, yet Left Behind

    Undocumented communities find little support in a time of crisis

    By

    The Mass. Dept. of Public Health reports that people of color are disproportionately affected by coronavirus, with Latinos and blacks accounting for 23 and 18 percent of Covid-19 cases despite making up only 12 and 9 percent of the state’s population respectively.

    While detailed statistics for Barnstable County are not yet available, it’s clear that immigrants and undocumented people are especially vulnerable. With less access to safety nets and working essential jobs that are impossible to do remotely, immigrants are generally at higher risk of becoming infected, according to the Washington Post.

    Rallying support for immigrants is proving difficult. Driving Families Forward is a coalition working to pass state legislation to allow anyone, regardless of immigration status, to apply for a driver’s license. The Outer Cape’s Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Sarah Peake are both sponsors. But not much is happening now.

    Many immigrants without drivers’ licenses opt to take public transit or carpool, potentially putting themselves at risk. Marginalized communities are receiving too little attention during the pandemic, said Natalicia Tracey, co-chair of the coalition. “We’re concerned that the most vulnerable communities are being made the last priority again.”

    In overcrowded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, maintaining social distancing is impossible. As Vox recently reported, detainees at the Bristol County ICE facility claimed they were put in solitary confinement without medical treatment after exhibiting symptoms and lacked basic essentials like soap and toilet paper.

    Dr. Roger Shapiro, an infectious disease researcher at Harvard Medical School, said that decreasing the number of people in ICE detention centers is critical to limiting the spread of the virus.

    “We need to keep people safe first and foremost,” Shapiro told the Independent. “Detention centers are places where the virus could spread quite easily.” An outbreak in an ICE detention facility would spread through officers, affecting public health beyond the facility.

    Despite these concerns, the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office is still referring detainees to ICE.

    Special Sheriff Jeff Perry told the Independent that the county’s relationship with ICE has remained unchanged since the pandemic began: officers continue to refer inmates without legal status to ICE.

    The sheriff’s office referred 102 people to ICE in 2019, up from 79 in 2018. A total of just 15 were referred to ICE in all of 2016 and 2017, before Sherriff James Cummings secured one of the few 287(g) ICE collaboration agreements in New England.

    CIVIL RIGHTS

    Cyr and Peake Support Drivers’ Licenses for the Undocumented

    City police chiefs are for it, but local police offer mixed views

    By

    BOSTON — A bill that would allow Massachusetts residents without legal immigration status to apply for drivers’ licenses is up for debate in the state house. An Act Relative to Work and Family Mobility (H.3012/S.2061) got a favorable review from the Joint Transportation Committee on Feb. 5.

    The bill would strike down the current requirement that license applicants prove lawful residence. Instead, applicants could show a passport or a license from another state. Twelve states, including Vermont, Connecticut, and more conservative places whose economies depend on immigrant workers, including Utah and New Mexico, have already passed similar laws.

    Advocates say the bill would provide two main benefits. First, it would improve road safety by increasing participation in drivers’ education courses and driving tests. Second, it would reduce the risk of deportation for current legal residents affected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), should those programs be revoked by the federal government.

    Driving Families Forward head with legislators at state house.
    Natalicia Tracy (front, in black print dress), DFF campaign co-chair, with the sponsors of the driver’s license bill. Left front: Reps. Christine Barber and Patricia Farley-Bouvier; right front: Rep. Denise Provost. Back, left to right: Lindsay Sabadosa, Rep. Michael Connolly, Sen. Brendan Crighton. (Photo courtesy Driving Families Forward)

    Natalicia Tracy is co-chair of the Driving Families Forward Coalition, a statewide advocacy group composed of more than 235 community groups and unions working to pass the bill. She told the Independent that going to court, where immigration officials can intervene, for a driving infraction is a “huge risk for people to get detained and deported.”

    Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have more than tripled since President Trump took office in 2017. Deportations often follow traffic violations, which, according to the Driving Families fact sheet, are the most common charges behind immigrant arrests.

    Both state Rep. Sarah Peake and Sen. Julian Cyr have signed on to the bill, which will now go to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. If both the Senate and House approve it, the bill will go to Gov. Charlie Baker. He has expressed skepticism.

    Cape Drivers Affected

    Driving Families Forward hosted one workshop in Falmouth and another in Nantucket last month to explain the purpose of the bill.

    Tracy said those who attended expressed concern that authorities would gain access to information about their residency status through the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). The bill includes language to ensure immigration authorities and law enforcement cannot access RMV data in bulk. Looking up everyone with Hispanic-sounding names, for example, wouldn’t be allowed, Tracy said. Furthermore, the RMV would not disclose what documentation was presented in the application unless ordered to by a court. Under the bill, documentation must prove identity, date of birth, and residency in Massachusetts.

    Tracy noted that the bill should make a difference to residents of Cape Cod, where public transportation is limited and where many jobs in construction and domestic work require travel.

    But the Cape is different from Boston or Worcester, which are home to a higher percentage of immigrants, she added. “We’re working to educate elected officials living in more rural areas who don’t have a lot of contact with immigrants and don’t understand the reality of the communities,” Tracy said.

    While the Mass. Major Cities Police Chiefs Association endorsed the bill in late January, saying that it builds trust between communities and police officers while making roads safer, the two local chiefs who responded to questions from the Independent had differing views.

    Eastham Police Chief Edward Kulhawik wrote in an email that he is still undecided about the bill. “I do see the value of having all drivers documented on the road and the positives of all residents regardless of their immigration status registered with the state,” he wrote. But he asked, “Are we rewarding undocumented individuals who are not in our country legally a privilege they have not earned?”

    Sarah Sherman-Stokes, associate director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program at Boston University School of Law, said, “I think that’s misguided. To allow people to have drivers’ licenses makes all of us safer.” Her U.S. citizenship, she pointed out, was not “earned” but was “a happenstance of birth.”

    Although he thinks it’s not a prominent issue on the Outer Cape, Wellfleet Police Chief Mike Hurley supports the bill because it would improve road safety. What he would like to see people earn is better driving skills.

    “If it helps people go through driver’s ed, I don’t see a negative impact,” he said.

    Truro Chief Jamie Calise did not directly answer a question about his view of the bill. Provincetown Chief Jim Golden did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

     

    OP-ED

    Fighting Darkness in the Season of Lights

    Don’t underestimate the power of individual action

    By

    The holiday season surrounds us with all kinds of lights: from the soft glow of candles to colorful bulbs and pyrotechnics shot into the midnight sky. They embody the spirit of the season and offset the diminishing days of the coming winter.

    It’s almost impossible not to see a similarity between the waning daylight hours and the gathering darkness of our national policy towards immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. But just how dark is the darkness?

    The International Alliance to End Genocide has identified 10 stages in a genocidal society. The final two are extermination and denial. Of the preceding eight stages, it is startling to learn that we meet six of them already when it comes to immigrants and asylum seekers — those already in our midst.

    One of the important hallmarks of genocide is dehumanization, which the alliance defines as “the denial of humanity to the other group; members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases.” According to a USA Today analysis, our president has used words like “animal,” “infestation,” “snake,” “predator,” “invasion,” “criminal,” and “killer” in referring to immigrants over 500 times since 2017 — language that has been amplified in the minds and media surrounding him.

    Another hallmark of genocide is the use of emergency proclamations, which “grants the dominant group total power over the targeted group,” according to the website genocidewatch.org. Earlier this year our president declared a national emergency at our southern border to gain access to $8 billion in federal funds for border security, which was being restricted by Congress. Invoking the same emergency, his administration implemented several rules with shortened public comment periods, or proclaimed them as interim rules, effective immediately, before any public comment. Similarly, Boston’s immigration judges were reassigned to border “tent courts,” leaving their local cases in limbo.

    In the eighth stage, persecution, “children are forcibly taken from their parents.” Here in modern-day America we learned that 2,800 families were separated under our “zero tolerance policy,” which was eventually discontinued — at least by official account. The New York Times and others have reported otherwise.

    The bottom line is that American society can now be called pre-genocidal. But while we cannot underestimate the darkness, neither can we underestimate the power of light to overcome it, nor the power of individual direct action, some of which is being done here locally.

    For example, all of the towns of the Outer Cape have passed safe community articles at town meeting, challenging the “immigrant as criminal” storyline and winning the day. The Nauset Interfaith Association, whose territory includes the Outer Cape, interceded in a local asylum seeker’s case, and ultimately reunited his family here. The First Parish Brewster, which has many congregants from the Outer Cape, recently elected to sponsor an asylum-seeking family.

    The gathering darkness has served to inspire many locals to engage in civic and personal action. To swing the pendulum towards the other side, away from darkness, we just have to reach down deep inside ourselves and share the light within.

    As we give gifts this season, we can reflect, too, on those we’ve been given, the talents and inclinations which contribute to our unique identity. These are the brightest and most powerful tools we have to dispel the darkness and push towards spring.Abstract Christmas lights

     

    IMMIGRANTS

    Finding Increasingly Rare Refuge on a Truro Farm

    A Nepalese couple succeeds even as asylum policy is strangled by Trump

    By

    Bhala and Digree Rai at Down Home Farm in Truro.
    Bhala poses with autumn flowers while Digree holds a butternut and a bitter squash. A plastic tarp on the left marks the boundary between terraces. (Photo Sophie Ruehr)

    TRURO — Fall hasn’t yet hit Down Home Farm: devoid of the expected autumnal colors, its fields glow green. The growing season isn’t over, and the farm’s cozy stand on Truro Center Road boasts a lush array of radishes, zucchini, arugula, broccoli, and flower bouquets.

    This patch of land is cultivated by its tenants, Bhala and Digree Rai, who emigrated from Nepal in 2011 and now call Truro home. The Cape has shaped the Rai family, and they in turn have shaped the land while building friendships and their business. Their story would seem to be a classic American tale of hardworking immigrants building a new life, if not for the shadow cast by the rise of xenophobia and racism now shaping U.S. immigration policy.

    Down Home Farm takes up about a third of Ron Singer’s property, which was converted from a sloping lawn to a productive one-acre farm. The Rais brought Nepalese technology to the Cape by constructing terraces along the slight grade to raise their vegetables and flowers in level beds, a technique familiar to them from working in the steep inclines of the Himalayas, Bhala Rai explained.

    The Rais use other technologies from Nepal as well, including what they call “Nepalese umbrellas” — mats of leaves reinforced by interwoven bamboo and sewn into a peak at one end. Fitting his head into a band at the peak, Bhala Rai explained that he wears the umbrella, which keeps his head and back dry, so that both hands are free to work.

    In December, Bhala plans to build a Nepalese plow. Each spring farmers in Nepal attach water buffalo to these plows and drive the animals through the fields to prepare the soil for millet, sweet potatoes, corn, and rice, Bhala said. He is excited to try out this technique in Truro, although perhaps without the water buffalo.

    Every year the couple experiments with new techniques and crops, not all of which are successful. “We’re still learning how to farm,” Bhala said.

    This year, Bhala and Digree planted Italian cucuzza squash, which is popular in Nepal for its health benefits. But on the Cape, selling these chartreuse giants, which grow up to three feet long, has been challenging. “They’re very expensive in Nepal, but no one buys them here,” Digree said.

    Bhala Rai with cucuzza squash.
    Bhala Rai holds up two Italian cucuzza squashes, which grow dangling from vines on the tree above. Despite their size, the squashes didn’t sell well this year. (Photo Sophie Ruehr)

    Other experiments have provided immediate benefit. This was their first season using a tractor, which has allowed them to expand the farm. Before, the couple used pitchforks and shovels to turn the soil manually, adding manure to build the topsoil, Digree said.

    Although farming has been a fruitful endeavor for the family, Bhala and Digree work side jobs in January and February. The farming itself isn’t easy. “We’ve been working hard,” said Bhala. “Sometimes there’s too much rain or too many mosquitoes.”

    Living away from their homeland has also been difficult. Digree showed me photos of her grandchildren, who she hasn’t seen in two years, on her phone. She said that they cannot easily visit here because of visa issues.

    Despite some challenges, the Rais have found a home in Truro. “We love it very much,” Bhala said. “It’s been good for us.”

    Friends in High Places

    Nancy Pease of Truro first met Bhala Rai while trekking in the Himalayas, where he was working as a porter. Pease returned several times on other treks, and the two developed a friendship. Eventually Bhala came to visit Truro over a summer. “I said to him, ‘You’ve shown me all around your country,’ ” Pease said. “ ‘Why don’t I show you around mine?’ ”

    Bhala returned for several summers from 2006 to 2010, landscaping and doing yard work for Pease and her neighbors. Work was scarce in Nepal, and he hoped to send money to his youngest son, David, for school in Kathmandu.

    In 2010, Bhala applied for and was granted political asylum, and in 2011 Digree and David joined him in Truro. Bhala is now a U.S. citizen, having passed the citizenship test on his first try.

    Although the Rais did not disclose the specifics of their asylum case, they left Nepal after years of political unrest and civil war, both of which had resulted in war crimes and forced migration, especially in rural areas.

    Pease enjoyed showing the Rais around Cape Cod and introducing them to the community. It gave her a chance to see her home through the eyes of people who had never lived near the sea. “I had to explain high and low tide!” she said.

    Digree Rai at Down Home Farm
    Digree Rai picks fresh broccoli at Down Home Farm in Truro. (Photo Sophie Ruehr)

    On the farm, neighbors and visitors frequently stop by to chat with Bhala and Digree. During my brief interview there, a family came by to say hello and ask after the business. They left with gifts of fresh eggs and vegetables.

    Challenges to Asylum

    U.S. immigration laws for asylum seekers made the Rais’ success story possible. But in recent years, the Trump administration has increasingly targeted refugees to prevent them from entering the country.

    Greater Boston Legal Services attorney Nancy Kelly told the Independent that, although the current administration cannot change the law, it can alter the way it is interpreted.

    Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions narrowed the definition of who can qualify as a refugee and drastically limited the number of people eligible for asylum in the U.S.

    According to the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in 2019, 60 percent of asylum requests have been denied. The denial rate hovered around 40 to 50 percent from 2010 to 2015.

    Kelly said that the Trump administration is curtailing asylum especially for Central American refugees.

    “The people coming across the border are in large part women and children,” she said. “A lot of those women are fleeing domestic violence or gender-directed violence. There’s huge murder rate in the countries that they’re coming from for women.”

    In a 2018 decision, Sessions upended decades of asylum law by proclaiming that domestic violence is not a valid reason to grant asylum. Kelly is disheartened to see her work to gain legal protection for women refugees undermined. “We’ve watched our lives’ work ripped to shreds,” she said.

    Pease said that the recent uptick in deportations is “disgusting and frightening.” From her friendship with the Rai family, she also feels deportations represent missed opportunities. “There are so many good people who would make wonderful citizens and contribute to their communities,” she said.

    ECONOMY

    H-2B Visa Conundrum Takes Toll on Employers and Workers

    Many workers now stay in country year-round to protect their visas

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Freda Powell has been coming from Jamaica to work at Marine Specialties on Commercial Street every year since 1998. Like many other seasonal workers on the Outer Cape, she comes here via the government’s H-2B visa program, and she is grateful for the opportunity.

    “Money from here is sent home to family for medication, rent, and all of that,” Powell says. “If you don’t come it’s really hard.”

    Though the H-2B program has been a boon both to workers like Powell and to employers faced with a serious labor shortage, it comes with high doses of uncertainty and frustration. Sponsoring visas for employees is costly and the process difficult, especially for smaller businesses. Even with all the paperwork in order and properly submitted, there are no guarantees that the effort and expense will pay off. Some businesses have had to delay spring opening or end their season early for lack of staff.

    When domestic workers can’t be found, H-2B visas allow companies to bring foreign workers to the U.S. for temporary nonagricultural jobs. But changing rules and a federal government that is hostile to immigration have raised fears among workers about traveling to their home countries. As a result, finding winter work for their H-2B staff so that they can remain in the U.S. is now a regular part of employers’ summer schedules.

    A random process

    Congress has set the annual H-2B visit limit at 66,000, but that total gets split between the summer and winter seasons with 33,000 each. Employers must submit their visa requests by the deadline and they’re randomly ordered for processing. That’s the last step in a lengthy process that puts employers across the country in a tense holding pattern while the system works. Missing out means no H-2B workers and a tough season ahead.

    Marine Specialties has been sponsoring H-2B workers for over 20 years. “We would be struggling to staff our store in the peak season without them,” says manager Nicolas Patrick. He says there simply aren’t enough people in the area to fill all their open spots. Advertisements that are required by the program get no responses. Like many H-2B businesses, Marine Specialties brings back the same people year after year.

    “They’re excellent,” says Patrick. “They love working here, and we love having them. They’re part of the family.”

    Before they can share the love, the odds of hitting the visa lottery are long. Many businesses seek legal help with the detailed documentation that is required, significantly adding to the expense.

    But employers desperate for help aren’t the only ones overwhelmed by the system. In January 2019, the application website crashed within minutes of going online. U.S. employers had made more than 96,000 visa requests for the 33,000 spots and processing stopped. That was 30 times the number of requests at the same time the previous year. Under pressure, the government authorized an additional 30,000 visas — but even that number left many critically understaffed.

    Late openings, early closings

    The Lobster Pot in Provincetown has been sponsoring H-2B visas for nearly three decades. Owner Tim McNulty knows how important these workers are, but time constraints continue to be a problem.

    McNulty says that the uncertainty of the lottery and the cost of the program puts stress on his operation. For the last two years the Lobster Pot has opened a month later than he would like, as there is simply not enough help. In past years the business was open until Thanksgiving. Now the exodus of workers who must leave to accommodate the start dates of employers sponsoring their in-country extensions makes staying open that late impossible.

    Tamara Robinson is in her fifth year of seasonal work in the U.S. on an H-2B visa. It’s helped her pay off student loans back in Jamaica, but she also knows the stress of leaving for a season of hard work. “It’s not ideal but you do what you have to do because the job situation back home is very difficult,” she says. Mostly she is proud of her accomplishments. “It’s worth all the sacrifices I had to make.”

    Tamara Robinson, Lobster Pot
    Tamara Robinson is in her fifth year of seasonal work on an H-2B visa. (Photo Mike Potenza)

    Positive change may be on the horizon. Winter resorts have the opposite peak season from the Cape, so destinations like Stowe, Vt. used to be ideal staffing partners. But waves of consolidation have swept the ski industry, along with a movement away from H-2B staffing. With those partners stepping back, Cape businesses have had to look elsewhere for reciprocal staffing arrangements.

    Today, many Florida country clubs are taking a closer look at having H-2B partners. They’re attracted to the in-country option, which gives workers a three-year window to work in the U.S.  Under H-2B rules, out-of-country visa holders must leave the country by the end date declared by their employer. To have them return each year, the employer must file a new visa request. The in-country extension allows workers to stay in the U.S. for three years before they must exit, as long as they have a sponsor for each season.

    Shirlene Industrious is director of human resources for the Club at Mediterra in Naples, Fla. Having a trained team of workers every season is a top priority for her. With in-country extensions she can potentially have the same team in place for three years.

    Industrious is in her second year of working with H-2B staff and finds the quality of the workers makes a big difference. “Because they’re already experienced, the biggest part of training was teaching them the Mediterra way,” she says.

    From the frustration and lack of certainty that haunts the H-2B program, this migration to in-country petitions may be the answer to staffing shortages, at least for the time being.

    At the Lobster Pot, Tim McNulty has hope. “As stressful as it is to work the in-country system,” he says, “we’re at least guaranteed workers for the 2020 season. I think it’s actually gotten better only because it’s gotten clearer.”

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