The H-2B visa program has ballooned without being fixed. Expanding it to year-round jobs like meatpacking would lower wages and revenue
9/18/25, 4:00 PM
The H-2B visa program lets employers hire migrant workers for temporary, low-wage jobs, but employers are pushing to expand the program and change its definition so it can be used for year-round work. As the Trump administration reduces the available labor force through increased deportations and the cancellation of work permits, employers may rely even more on H-2B workers. Currently, H-2B jobs are concentrated in a few industries and are associated with lower wages, poor working conditions, and widespread wage theft amounting to billions of dollars. Focusing on meatpacking as a case study, the report compares employers’ attempts to use H-2B workers as a low-cost strategy with an alternative approach that provides workers with full labor rights through lawful permanent residency. The authors conclude that expanding H-2B is harmful and instead call for stronger worker protections, reforms to the program’s rules, and pathways to permanent residency for the workers who fill these roles.
The H-2B visa program allows employers to hire migrant workers for temporary jobs in low-wage occupations like landscaping, construction, and hospitality. Employers are not only seeking to increase the size of this program but are lobbying to change its purpose by altering the law requiring that H-2B jobs be temporary to expand it to year-round occupations. Employers will likely view the H-2B program as a key employment strategy since the Trump administration is reducing the pool of available workers by ramping up the number of deportations and canceling work permits and protective immigration statuses like parole. At present, H-2B jobs are highly concentrated in a small handful of industries, and as this report shows, the program has negative impacts on wages and working conditions. H-2B rules are undercutting U.S. wage standards, and employers in the main H-2B industries engage in rampant wage theft and have stolen billions of dollars from workers. We examine one industry, meatpacking, where employers are seeking to expand or replace part of their workforce with H-2B workers. We assess whether a low-road employment strategy using H-2B makes sense compared with one in which workers would have the full labor and workplace rights that are accompanied by lawful permanent resident status (a green card). We argue that expansion of H-2B should be avoided. What’s needed instead are new rules for H-2B and worker protections and a viable path to lawful permanent residence for the hundreds of thousands of workers who are employed in the United States through this program.