{"id":17144,"date":"2018-08-20T21:31:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T02:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=17144"},"modified":"2018-08-20T21:31:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T02:31:57","slug":"the-silver-lining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/08\/20\/the-silver-lining\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silver Lining?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WaPo<\/strong><\/em> reports<\/a> on one of the negative consequences of President Trump’s constraints on legal migrant Mexican workers:<\/p>\n

Normally, the crabs would be steamed and hauled through double doors to a long, fluorescent-lit room, where dozens of employees at Russell Hall Seafood would extract the meat. But on this day, the steel tables inside that room sat empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing going on at all,\u201d said owner Harry Phillips, \u201c\u2009\u2019cause we haven\u2019t got our pickers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changes to a foreign-worker visa program have left businesses like Russell Hall without the seasonal laborers \u2014 mostly from Mexico \u2014 who help drive Maryland\u2019s signature industry.<\/p>\n

About a third of picking jobs remain unfilled across the Eastern Shore this summer, as few Americans have responded to openings and Mexican laborers are stranded at home without permission to come here to work.<\/p>\n

The situation illustrates a general unwillingness among U.S. workers to perform certain kinds of labor, some of the business owners here in Dorchester County say. It also demonstrates how President Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d policies have not necessarily helped those workers or small-business owners but instead have dealt them a new economic reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it may be damn good for the crabs. No, not humor, just fact. A little less consumption means a few more crabs, doing there thing, out in the environment.<\/p>\n

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Michael Bars said his agency \u2014 which manages the H-2B program \u2014 is \u201cfocused on ensuring the integrity of the immigration system and protecting the interests of U.S. workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to reforming employment-based immigration programs so they benefit the American people to the greatest extent possible,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Bars and his boss, President Trump, may actually be accomplishing it – just not in quite the way envisioned. And, of course, at the expense of those running the crabbing business.<\/p>\n

But, like the American farmer, some American workers have been sacrificed for the good of President Trump<\/del> the rest of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WaPo reports on one of the negative consequences of President Trump’s constraints on legal migrant Mexican workers: Normally, the crabs would be steamed and hauled through double doors to a long, fluorescent-lit room, where dozens of employees at Russell Hall Seafood would extract the meat. But on this day, the \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17145,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144\/revisions\/17145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}