Make America Grate: Reducing Legal Immigration Hurts Small Businesses

Grate (verb): 1. reduce (something, especially food) to small shreds by rubbing it on a grater. 2. make an unpleasant rasping sound.

The Trump administration is sharply limiting legal immigration. Some small business owners are speaking out about the damage this is causing.

The Lexington-Herald Leader reports on small businesses that are losing contracts due to a loss of guest-workers from Guatamala and other poor nations.

“Eddie Devine voted for President Donald Trump because he thought he would be good for American business. Now, he says, the Trump administration’s restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business. ‘I feel like I’ve been tricked by the devil,’ said Devine, owner of Harrodsburg-based Devine Creations Landscaping. “I feel so stupid.” 
Devine says it has been years since he could find enough dependable, drug-free American workers for his $12-an-hour jobs mowing and tending landscapes for cemeteries, shopping centers and apartment complexes across Central Kentucky. Devine says he lost a $100,000 account because he didn’t have enough men to do the job. He’s worried he may be out of business next year if things don’t improve.

He isn’t alone. Cuts in H-2B visas are hurting small businesses across the country that can’t find Americans willing to do hard, manual labor: Maryland crab processors, Texas shrimp fishermen, and Kentucky landscapers and construction companies.

‘We live and die by these visas,’ said Ken Monin, owner of Monin Construction, which specializes in home additions, roofs, decks and garages. ‘Last year we about went bankrupt. The workers we were supposed to get in March didn’t show up until August because they couldn’t get visas.’

Monin applied for eight H-2B workers this year, but he isn’t optimistic he will get any. Employers seeking H-2B workers must prove they have advertised and tried unsuccessfully to hire local workers.”

PHOTO CREDIT: BIZARRO COMICS