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Camacho pushes immediate action on labor crisis
GUAM—Former governor Felix P. Camacho said more needs to be done to address the current labor crisis facing the U.S. territory and that the mass rejection of H2B visas is extremely detrimental to Guam’s economy.
“History shows that Guam cannot do away with H2B workers as the island does not have a sustainable labor force and the tyranny of distance from the U.S. Mainland makes it difficult to attract enough U.S. workers from the mainland,” Camacho said adding that the rejection of H2B visas is not a result of changing of the law; it is a result of how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interprets the law when adjudicating the petitions. Therefore, there has to be a way to persuade USCIS to interpret the law as it did before.
Camacho said the short-term solution is to persuade USCIS to go back to how it previously adjudicated H2B visas and clearly writing letters to the agency is not enough.
“At this point only the President of the United States can bring about an immediate solution by direct intervention using his executive authority to reverse this trend of complete denials of H2B Visa applications for Guam and the nation,” Camacho said.
“Our current delegate should seek a meeting immediately with the President and make the case for Guam on how damaging this is to our island.”
Camacho noted that the proposed amendment authored by our current delegate addresses issues for companies seeking H2B workers for Military build-up related projects but it does not address local, non-military projects and the construction companies that rely on H2B workers.
“This solution might help big budget, inside the fence projects, but what happens to a family just trying to build a first home?” Camacho asked. “Construction costs will rise and schedules will be delayed in favor of big federal projects. We need solutions that will help our whole island, not just our military partners. That is why as a long-term solution I suggest introducing Congressional legislation that creates a unique program for Guam to meet the demands of the military and local construction projects. Guam plays a vital strategic role with the U.S. Department of Defense so what is good for Guam is good for our nation.”
