Mary Ann Bragg, capecodtimes.com
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Posted Aug 28, 2017 at 9:24 PM
Updated Aug 28, 2017 at 9:24 PM
Reports of a Trump administration plan to reduce or eliminate a majority of privately funded foreign student exchange programs, known as J-1 visas, prompted a sharp rebuttal Monday from U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
“This Administration has shown itself time and again as hostile to small business,” Keating said in a statement.
Cape and Island businesses rely on the J-1 visa programs to meet staffing needs during seasonal peaks and when American workers are not available, Keating said. One category of the J-1 program in particular, called the summer work travel program, brings about 7,000 foreign students to Massachusetts, with the vast majority going to the Cape and Islands, Keating said.
In 2014, the summer work travel program brought 3,972 workers to Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, according to state department statistics provided by the chamber. In that year, Edgartown had the largest number, 412, of 19 towns accounted for in the data.
In 2016, there were 4,694 workers in the program here, out of 101,061 across the U.S.
Each summer on the Cape and Islands, students with J-1 visas typically arrive from mid-May until late June and stay until mid-August through late September. The students typically have pre-arranged jobs and dates of employment.
“It’s all temporary, peak season need,” chamber Chief Executive Officer Wendy Northcross said. “These are good kids who are coming here for a good reason and they go home, and they are really important to the Cape economy.”
Eliminating the J-1 programs are part of a broader effort to protect the interests of U.S. workers under President Trump’s Buy American, Hire American (BAHA) executive order, according to the Alliance for International Exchange, which promotes exchanges programs.
The notion that the J-1 programs undermine the BAHA executive order is “misguided and uninformed,” the Alliance said in a statement released Sunday.
“In many cases, these exchange programs work to effectively supplement and expand the American labor force during peak seasons,” the Alliance said. “With this additional temporary support, companies, camps and other organizations can increase their services and ability to grow their businesses — and ultimately their permanent workforce.”
Cape Cod chamber members were alerted Saturday by exchange program advocacy groups about the possibility of the privately funded J-1 programs being a target for reduction or elimination, Northcross said.
As a result of the alert, the chamber has reached out to the White House and to Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. Mnuchin and other economic advisers may be “more sympathetic to the economic impacts of the decision to eliminate the J-1 program,” Northcross said.
The Cape and Islands relies not only on the J-1 visas but also on the H-2B visa program, which allows foreigners to work in the U.S. for part of the year when there’s a labor shortage. In Keating’s district, about 4,200 workers with H-2B visas are employed during the peak season.
A constraint placed on the H-2B visas earlier this year was resolved in part by July, Northcross said. But that constraint placed even more emphasis on the J-1 visas program, she said.
“There were fewer people, so employers really looked to them,” she said of the J-1 students.
The summer work travel program and other J-1 positions, such as camp counselor and au pair, play an important role in public diplomacy [JB emphasis] and cultural exchange as well, according to the Alliance.
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