The New York Times grieved the slowdown of United States companies outsourcing jobs to foreigners, who are often exploited in the process.
In a piece for the Times, reporters primarily focus on the plight of Mexican nationals who typically would be brought to the U.S. through the H-2B visa for low-skilled work but this year were not able to make it north due to the visa cap.
Every year, 66,000 foreign guest workers are brought to the United States on the H-2B to take seasonal jobs in blue-collar American sectors. Due to pressure from the big business lobby and the Republican establishment, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly has increased the cap by another 15,000 foreign guest workers.
As the Times report focuses on how these Mexican nationals are “trapped” in their native country of Mexico, details about the exploitation of these workers are subtly revealed and glossed over by reporters.
For instance, in the first paragraph of the Times piece, it is revealed that the foreign worker being profiled for the write-up, Francisco Trujillo, is made to sleep in uncomfortable conditions when he is brought to the on the H-2B visa. Under H-2B guidelines, foreign workers must find their own housing:
Francisco Trujillo heads north each summer to do a job that few Americans want: a four-month stint operating carnival rides, mopping up vomit and sleeping in a cramped trailer with other workers.
The wage of another carnival worker is revealed, depicting an industry that uses the H-2B visa to bring in cheap, foreign labor:
From the United States, Mr. Peña sent home as much as $300 a week from his take-home pay of about $345, eating fried chicken or cooking eggs with chili and tomato to save money. He tore down the wooden shack where he lives with his parents on the edge of Tlapacoyan and built cinder block walls. He also paid for his father’s treatment for typhoid.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, who once worked as a carnival worker, told Breitbart Texas that the low weekly wage was “very poor pay by any standard.”
Vaughan said these foreign carnival workers often operate more than 40 hours a week while also having to rapidly move from one location to next.
“Why is our government allowing carnival operators to bring in foreign workers to do jobs with these conditions that would be patently illegal and rightfully intolerable for American workers,” Vaughan told Breitbart Texas. “If these carnival employers are treating their workers this way, what other laws are they stretching and breaking?”
“The H-2B program operates as a subsidy to an industry that is not interested in competing for U.S. workers by offering decent employment conditions and wages,” Vaughan continued. “Why is the U.S. government propping up this industry with guest workers, especially when we know that thousands of those guest workers will overstay their visas and remain here illegally, further burdening American communities?”
While the Times piece continued glossing over the alleged exploitation of these carnival workers, the reporters made a point to play up that they liked being able to come to the U.S., while also calling Americans racist:
Despite accusations of underhanded or illegal practices by employers, several carnival workers who were waiting for visas this month said they enjoyed the carnival circuit.
Yes, there were days that stretched into the wee hours, patrons who vomited on the Zipper (a ride that involves being spun upside down in cages) and the occasional racist outburst from a parent whose child was not tall enough to board a ride. But there was also the chance to learn English, pick up some trendy, hand-me-down sneakers and leave the violence of Mexico behind.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, claims of a labor shortage, and thus the call for more foreign workers to take American jobs, are overstated and unfounded. At the same time, wages in H-2B industries have remained stagnant of even decreased over the last decade.
(via: Breitbart)
