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Trump supporters suffer unintended consequences of his policies
-- Small business owners who voted for Trump might be forced to shut down because the president is making it harder for them to hire guest workers. Here’s a story that appeared over the weekend in the Herald Leader of Lexington, Ky.:
“Eddie Devine voted for [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 … 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. So for years he has hired 20 seasonal workers, mostly from Guatemala, through the U.S. Labor Department’s H2-B ‘guest worker’ program. Importing these workers for a few months cost him an additional $18,000 in fees and expenses beyond their wages, which must be the same as he pays American workers. But that’s the only way he could serve his customers.
“Restrictions on guest-worker visas, which began during President Barack Obama’s second term as immigration became a hot issue for conservatives, have gotten worse under Trump. And it’s even more of a problem now that the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years. Devine says he lost a $100,000 account because he didn’t have enough men to do the job. …
“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. Devine said he believed Trump’s America-first promises. But cutting off a good supply of seasonal foreign labor when Americans won’t take those jobs is only hurting American business owners and the U.S. workers they employ, he said. These workers aren’t immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That’s why Devine thinks the Trump administration’s stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. ‘I think there’s a war on brown people,’ he said. “But what makes him most angry is that Trump’s properties in Florida and New York have used 144 H-2B workers since 2016. ‘I want to know why it’s OK for him to get his workers, but supporters like me don’t get theirs,’ Devine said.”
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/05/15/daily-202-trump-supporters-suffer-unintended-consequences-of-his-policies/5afa0c8830fb0425887994fd/?utm_term=.eb6b5bf9dcde
“Eddie Devine voted for [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 … 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. So for years he has hired 20 seasonal workers, mostly from Guatemala, through the U.S. Labor Department’s H2-B ‘guest worker’ program. Importing these workers for a few months cost him an additional $18,000 in fees and expenses beyond their wages, which must be the same as he pays American workers. But that’s the only way he could serve his customers.
“Restrictions on guest-worker visas, which began during President Barack Obama’s second term as immigration became a hot issue for conservatives, have gotten worse under Trump. And it’s even more of a problem now that the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years. Devine says he lost a $100,000 account because he didn’t have enough men to do the job. …
“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. Devine said he believed Trump’s America-first promises. But cutting off a good supply of seasonal foreign labor when Americans won’t take those jobs is only hurting American business owners and the U.S. workers they employ, he said. These workers aren’t immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That’s why Devine thinks the Trump administration’s stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. ‘I think there’s a war on brown people,’ he said. “But what makes him most angry is that Trump’s properties in Florida and New York have used 144 H-2B workers since 2016. ‘I want to know why it’s OK for him to get his workers, but supporters like me don’t get theirs,’ Devine said.”
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/05/15/daily-202-trump-supporters-suffer-unintended-consequences-of-his-policies/5afa0c8830fb0425887994fd/?utm_term=.eb6b5bf9dcde
(as a footnote, the "dependable drug-free American workers" comment is pretty breathtaking to say the least)
4 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210612483
-with a topic of the proposed "carve out" of a Medicaid work requirement for rural (read: "white" ) recipients, and the argument that somehow justifies it because there are purportedly "more jobs" in the urban areas (thus suggesting that urban blacks are lazy).
Why not have rural (whites) do these landscaping jobs? I see landscaping companies around me for the large complexes where a couple guys ride a platform mower, then a couple guys run weed-wackers around, and finally a couple guys will go through with a leaf-blower to clear the debris. In some cases, you will see them use large hedge clippers to shape dense shrubs (privet, hollies, etc), and at the end of the season, they will have leaf-blowers mounding leaves onto a tarp that is heaved on the back of a pickup and driven away.
As a sidenote, when I was growing up, my neighborhood in the city had a couple of these (mostly family-owned) businesses and they all hired local - mostly young white teen boys who were off from school during the summer, or recent high school graduates, who if they hung around long enough, learned how a small business operated, could save some money to buy some used mowers and pickup truck, and eventually parlay that into a trailer and more equipment.
Eventually these entities moved out of the city and into the suburbs where housing developments and office parks were booming. But once out in the 'burbs, the little landscaping businesses started changing hands, and at some point, the employees were no longer "local".
-with a topic of the proposed "carve out" of a Medicaid work requirement for rural (read: "white" ) recipients, and the argument that somehow justifies it because there are purportedly "more jobs" in the urban areas (thus suggesting that urban blacks are lazy).
Why not have rural (whites) do these landscaping jobs? I see landscaping companies around me for the large complexes where a couple guys ride a platform mower, then a couple guys run weed-wackers around, and finally a couple guys will go through with a leaf-blower to clear the debris. In some cases, you will see them use large hedge clippers to shape dense shrubs (privet, hollies, etc), and at the end of the season, they will have leaf-blowers mounding leaves onto a tarp that is heaved on the back of a pickup and driven away.
As a sidenote, when I was growing up, my neighborhood in the city had a couple of these (mostly family-owned) businesses and they all hired local - mostly young white teen boys who were off from school during the summer, or recent high school graduates, who if they hung around long enough, learned how a small business operated, could save some money to buy some used mowers and pickup truck, and eventually parlay that into a trailer and more equipment.
Eventually these entities moved out of the city and into the suburbs where housing developments and office parks were booming. But once out in the 'burbs, the little landscaping businesses started changing hands, and at some point, the employees were no longer "local".
"strike" tag again. 