WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Haitians will no longer be eligible for U.S. visas given to low-skilled workers, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, bringing an end to a small-scale effort to employ Haitians in the United States after a catastrophic 2010 earthquake.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the change less than a week after President Donald Trump reportedly questioned in an Oval Office meeting why the United States would want to take in immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to them as “shithole” countries. Trump has denied using that word.

DHS said in a regulatory filing that it was removing Haiti from lists of more than 80 countries whose citizens can be granted H-2A and H-2B visas, given to seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries.

It cited what it said were “high levels of fraud and abuse” by Haitians with the visas, and a “high rate of overstaying the terms” of their visas.

A DHS report published last year stated that Haitians on a variety of non-immigrant visas, including H-2As and H-2Bs, had a roughly 40 percent visa overstay rate in the 2016 fiscal year.

Belize and Samoa were also removed from the lists, for risks stemming from human trafficking and not taking back nationals ordered removed from the United States, respectively.

Just a few dozen Haitians entered the United States on the visas each year since they were given permission to do so in 2012 by the Obama administration, according to DHS data.

Sixty-five Haitians entered the United States on H-2A visas, given for agricultural work, in the 2016 fiscal year, according to DHS data, and 54 Haitians were granted H-2A visas by the State Department between March and November 2017. The number of Haitians entering in 2016 on H-2B visas, which are for non-agricultural seasonal work, was more than zero but too low to report, according to DHS.

Supporters of the visas say they gave Haitians a rare opportunity to work legally in the United States, contribute to the U.S. economy, and help fund the recovery of Haiti after the earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people.

“They’re just cutting off the most economically beneficial visa for the Haitian people,” said Sarah Williamson, founder of PTP Consulting, a Virginia-based consultancy that ran a pilot program to bring Haitians to the United States on the visas. “Even though not many people have been able to avail themselves of it, it’s been hugely transformational for those who have participated.”

The Haitian embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials in Haiti were not immediately available for comment.

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Trump praised Haitians.

“I love the people. There’s a tremendous warmth,” he said. “And they’re very hard-working people.”

Humanitarian groups and Republican and Democratic members of Congress lobbied the Obama administration to make Haiti eligible for the short-term worker visas, arguing that remittances to family in Haiti would help the country recover from the earthquake. Without H-2A and H-2B visas, there are few legal avenues for most Haitians to go to the United States.

“The post-earthquake reconstruction efforts ignored migration and remittances entirely,” said Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development who was heavily involved in the efforts to allow Haitian workers to come to the United States. “We saw it as an opportunity to help Haiti rebuild after the earthquake.”

The Obama administration added Haiti to the list of approved countries in 2012, and PTP Consulting stepped in to screen and match Haitian workers with farmers in the United States.

In countries with more experience sending workers to the United States, such as Jamaica, the home-country government typically does much of that work and regulates the H-2A process heavily, Williamson said.

Jon Hegeman, who operates a commercial greenhouse in Alabama, brought in eight Haitian H-2A workers in 2015 through the consultancy, and nine workers in 2016.

Before Hegeman hired Haitians, his business had trouble finding local workers. Within a three-month period, they went through 300 people for eight positions, he said. When he was approached by PTP to participate in the program, he agreed.

“These guys were awesome. They worked hard, you see a smile on their face every day,” said Hegeman, who as the child of a missionary was born and largely raised in the Dominican Republic, which neighbors Haiti. “We’ve changed or impacted communities in Haiti.”

Demonstrators hold up Haitian flags and shout as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

He said he would escort his workers to the airport in order to make sure they left the United States when their visas ran out.

“That was one of my biggest concerns,” he said. “We had zero visa overstays.”

Williamson said PTP was able to ensure the return to Haiti of every worker that came through its program, but said other companies applying for H-2A visas for Haitians may not have been as scrupulous.</s>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has removed Haiti, Belize, and Samoa from a list of countries whose citizens are eligible for temporary work visas to the United States, the agency announced Thursday.

Published in a Federal Register Notice (FRN), the list of countries eligible for H-2A and H-2B visas - temporary or seasonal non-immigrant work visas for agricultural and non-agricultural work, respectively is updated yearly. The most recent register, released by DHS on Wednesday, excluded the three countries.

 

 “The decision to remove Haiti, Belize and Samoa from the H-2A & H-2B lists was made as a result of interagency coordination between DHS and the Department of State," DHS Spokesperson Katie Waldman told VOA Creole.

 

 During the 2016 fiscal year, 65 H-2A visas were issued to Haitians. According to a DHS report from last year, roughly 40 percent of Haitians on non-immigrant visas, including but not limited to H-2A and H-2B, overstayed.

"The FRN citation of cases of Haitian nationals having high instances of fraud and abuse as well as a higher likelihood of overstaying their visas was made based on input from the State Department, in the cases of fraud, and from State and DHS related to the volume of Haitian nationals who overstay their visas and remain in the country illegally,” Waldman said.

 

 Two hundred and seventy-six H-2B visas, for seasonal workers, were issued to citizens of Belize in the 2016 fiscal year, but the Central American country has been blocked from the program amid concerns that it does not meet U.S. standards to protect victims of trafficking, DHS said.

Though no H-2A or H-2B visas were issued to Samoans in fiscal year 2016, DHS said they had blocked the country for not taking back nationals ordered removed from the United States.

The announcement comes a week after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly referred to Haiti as a "s---hole" country.</s>Haitians are no longer eligible to apply for temporary agricultural and seasonal visas, the Trump administration ruled Wednesday. Such visas were part of an effort to employ Haitians in the United States after a 2010 earthquake devastated the Caribbean country.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the changes will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday. Other than Haiti, Samoa and Belize were also removed from the list of countries eligible to apply for H-2A and H-2B visas, which are provided to seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries.

The announcement read: “The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined … with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, that the following countries should no longer be designated as eligible countries because they are not meeting the standards set out in the regulation: Belize, Haiti, and Samoa.”

It cited Belize was listed as “Tier 3” in the Department of State’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report and the country did “not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to do so,” while Haitians displayed “high levels of fraud and abuse,” and “a high rate of overstaying the terms” of their visas.

“Samoa is currently listed as ‘At Risk of Non-Compliance’ according to ICE’s year-end assessment of foreign countries’ cooperation in accepting back their nationals that have been ordered to be removed from the United States. … there has not been sufficient progress on removals to Samoa,” the announcement read.

People from almost 80 countries are eligible to apply for temporary worker program visas in the U.S. and the list is published every year. But, it is extremely rare for U.S. to remove countries from the list.

The decision comes days after President Donald Trump, in a meeting with senators, questioned them why the country would take in immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations, referring to them as “shithole countries.” It also comes in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for about 50,000 Haitians in July 2019. TPS was offered to those who were displaced from their nations due to natural disasters — such as in the case of Haitians — internal conflicts or such dangerous conditions.

But, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Trump praised Haitians.

“I love the people. There’s a tremendous warmth,” he said. “And they’re very hard-working people.”

The DHS reported 65 Haitians entered the U.S. on H-2A visas in 2016, while 54 Haitians were granted H-2A visas by the department between March and November 2017. DHS added Haitians who entered on H-2B visas were too low to record.

A research titled “Shared Harvest: Temporary Work Visas as US-Haiti Development Cooperation” conducted by the Center for Global Development recorded when people from countries such as Haiti come to work in the U.S., the benefits were shared by both the nations.

For example, one worker-month of Haitian labor expands the U.S. economy from $3,270-$4,140. The study also added the farm productivity by Haitian seasonal workers would create at least two jobs for U.S. workers.

The author of the study, Michael Clemens, said, "The administration has made it clear that it sees no benefit from Haitian immigrants in the US, and that's incorrect. There has been a tremendous benefit from Haitian migrants to the US, including on this particular visa. … No doubt that it's a pile-on," CNN reported.</s>Law360, New York (January 18, 2018, 5:49 PM EST) -- The U.S. has revoked eligibility for temporary agricultural and seasonal work visas for nationals of Haiti, Belize and Samoa, according to a notice posted Wednesday in the Federal Register.



The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Haitian applications for H-2A and H-2B visas have been denied at high rates and that those who were issued such visas have “historically demonstrated high levels of fraud and abuse” and often overstayed their visas.



“Haiti has shown no improvement in these areas, and the secretary of homeland security has determined,...

To view the full article, register now.</s>President Trump’s administration is blocking Haitians from obtaining certain temporary work visas — and the move could leave his family’s businesses with a diminished employee pool.

The Department of Homeland Security in a regulatory filing said Haiti was removed from the list of more than 80 countries eligible for the H-2B as well as the H-2A visas due to “high levels of fraud and abuse” and a “high rate of overstaying the terms” of their visas.

Since 2010, the Trump Organization has requested more than 500 visas for foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago, the luxury golf resort he’s since nicknamed the “Winter White House,” according to Department of Homeland Security records. Many of the foreign workers brought in to staff the club on a seasonal basis are reportedly from Haiti and Romania.

For the 2017-18 tourist season, the Palm Beach resort applied for and received 70 H-2B visas to fill jobs ranging from cooks and housekeepers to waiters and waitresses.

And despite building a presidential campaign on “Making America Great Again” and hiring local workers, the Trump Organization this year secured approval for six more visas than it did for the previous season.

That figure also doesn’t include a request for H-2A visas — a visa for agricultural workers also no longer available to Haitians.

At the end of November, Trump Vineyard Estates posted jobs available at the Virginia winery to foreign workers on the H-2A visa with a start date listed for January 22.

It’s not uncommon for resort owners and employers to rely on the H-2B visa, which allows for foreign worker to temporarily enter the country and perform non-agricultural job responsibilities.

The visas are typically valid for 10 months, though there is an option to extend the visa for up to the three years.

It’s unclear how many of the Haitian workers at Trump-related businesses were using the temporary visas. Calls to the organization, Mar-a-Lago and a job placement company used by Trump Organization were not returned.

Haitians on a variety of non-immigrant visas, including both H-2B and H-2A, had an estimated visas overstay rate of nearly 40% for 2016, according to a DHS report published last year.

Overall, more than 739,000 people on the same selection of visas overstayed their admissions last year — resulting in a total overstay rate of 1.47%

In addition to Haiti, Belize and Samoa were also removed from the eligibility list, with the DHS citing human trafficking violations and not taking back deported nationals as the primary causes.</s>Amidst tension over President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration from certain countries, residents of Haiti, Belize and Samoa will lose eligibility for temporary agricultural and seasonal work visas this year, according to a notice from the Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to grant H-2A and H-2B visas to citizens of roughly 80 countries, so that they may travel to the U.S. to fill temporary job openings. But a notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday says starting Jan. 18, and continuing through that date next year, the list will be three countries shorter.

Haiti’s removal has attracted special attention, given that DHS recently announced that Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation — which allowed Haitians to live and work in the U.S. following the country’s 2010 earthquake — will end in July 2019. The Caribbean nation was also among those Trump reportedly referred to as “shithole” countries during a recent immigration meeting. (Trump has denied using that language, but stood by the policy he was discussing.)

The DHS notice cites “extremely high rates of refusal” among Haitians applying for H-2A or H-2B visas and “high levels of fraud and abuse and a high rate of overstaying the terms of their H-2 admission” as reasons for removing the country from the program.

Belize, according to the notice, will be eliminated based on its failure to meet the standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Samoa, meanwhile, has been deemed at risk of non-compliance when it comes to reaccepting nationals who have been deported from the U.S.

Mongolia will join the list of accepted countries in 2018, according to the report.</s>The Trump administration is moving to ban Haitian immigrants from applying for seasonal and farm work visas in the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday night, just days after the president reportedly used a vulgar slur to describe the country last week.

The department said it will remove Haiti, as well as Belize and Samoa, from its list of countries whose citizens can receive H-2A and H-2B visas, which are typically granted to seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries.

“The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined, however, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, that the following countries should no longer be designated as eligible countries because they are not meeting the standards set out in the regulation: Belize, Haiti, and Samoa,” the department said in a regulatory filing.

In the filing, which was posted online, the DHS said Haitian nationals “have historically demonstrated high levels of fraud and abuse and a high rate of overstaying the terms” of their U.S. admissions.

Belize was removed from the list due to risks connected to human trafficking, while Samoa was removed for not accepting back citizens who’d been ordered to leave the U.S., according to the filing.

The announcement comes as the administration battles allegations the president asked lawmakers why they would want people from Haiti, Africa and other "s---hole countries" coming into the United States, according to multiple sources either briefed on or familiar with the discussion.

Trump has repeatedly denied making the comment and he praised the people of Haiti in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.

“I love the people. There’s a tremendous warmth,” Trump said. “And they’re very hard-working people.”

He tweeted on Jan. 12, in the wake of the reports about his language that he has "a wonderful relationship with Haitians."</s>The Trump administration is moving to prohibit people from Haiti — which the president allegedly insulted in a meeting last week — from applying for visas for seasonal and farm workers.

The Department of Homeland Security has given notice it plans to prohibit people from Haiti, as well as Belize and Samoa, ineligible to apply for H-2A and H-2B visas, which are temporary. The H-2A visa is for agriculture and the H-2B is for non-agricultural seasonal work in places such as resorts.

In the notice, DHS said that Haitians applying for the visas “present extremely high rates of refusal." DHS also said it stopped taking Belize applications because the country is not complying with U.S. anti-trafficking laws. And Samoa is now listed as “at risk of non-compliance” because it has not made progress in accepting back nationals deported from the U.S.

Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Center for Global Development, said barring Haitians from the visa will encourage illegal migration to the U.S. and hurt the U.S. economy. "Haitian farmworkers on the H-2A visa that I have studied in Alabama added $4,000 to the U.S. economy per worker, per month," said Clemens, who is a labor economist.</s>The Trump administration is planning to bar those from Haiti from applying for visas designated for seasonal and farm workers.

The Department of Homeland Security has submitted a notice that it plans to restrict those from Haiti, Belize, and Samoa from applying for certain temporary visas, according to NBC News.

The H-2A and H-2B visas permit agriculture and seasonal work and permit businesses to bring in workers from abroad.

DHS claimed that the Haitians seeking the temporary visas “present extremely high rates of refusal” and Haitians that have been granted those temporary visas “have demonstrated high levels of fraud and abuse and a high rate of overstaying the terms of their H-2 admission.”

The move comes after reports emerged last week that said Trump asked why the U.S. is “having all these people from shithole countries come here” as the lawmakers in attendance discussed immigration from African nations. He also was said to have made some disparaging remarks about Haiti.

Trump defended himself Friday by tweeting he “never said anything derogatory" and claimed he never said anything disrespectful specifically about Haiti. Some lawmakers who were present at the meeting confirmed Trump's "shithole" comment, while others have said they do not recall it.</s>Haitians will no longer be eligible for temporary agricultural and seasonal visas in the U.S. following a new regulatory filing from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The announcement, published Thursday, has noted that citizens of Haiti, as well as Belize and Samoa, will be prohibited from applying for the temporary H-2A and H-2B visas.

DHS publishes a list of eligible countries annually. This year, 83 countries are included in the list, but Haiti is noticeably absent.

In the filing, DHS justifies the move by noting that Haitian nationals “present extremely high rates of refusal” and “have historically demonstrated high levels of fraud and abuse and a high rate of overstaying the terms of their H-2 admission.” Haiti has reportedly not demonstrated improvement in these areas of concern. However, the justification provides no evidence or statistics to back the claim.

As conversations around immigration have taken the spotlight in recent weeks, the administration will likely come under scrutiny for this decision. Only a few hundred Haitians are granted an H-2 visa each year, and this visa category is often the only recourse available to Haitian nationals hoping to enter the U.S. legally.

The change also comes just a week after Trump reportedly questioned why the U.S. would want to have immigrants from “shithole” countries like Haiti and African nations in an Oval Office meeting, and two months after the administration decided to end Temporary Protected Status for the close to 60,000 Haitians who are legally living in the U.S. since the country’s 2010 earthquake.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security discontinues the eligibility of citizens of Belize, Haiti, and Samoa to obtain H-2A and H-2B visas for temporary work.