Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor will be issuing a regulation that will make an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available to employers for fiscal year (FY) 2023, on top of the 66,000 H-2B visas that are normally available each fiscal year, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association reported in a release Thursday. By making these supplemental visas available at the outset of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2022, those in the horse industry, such as trainers, who rely heavily on the H-2B visa...

Edited Press Release Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas directed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Tuesday to stop mass worksite raids and to take actions to promote a fair labor market by supporting more effective enforcement of wage protections, workplace safety, labor rights and other employment laws and standards. In accordance with a memorandum issued by Secretary Mayorkas, ICE, CBP, and USCIS will develop and update policies to enhance the Department's impact in supporting the...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor issued a joint temporary final rule published Tuesday in the Federal Register that offers 22,000 additional H-2B visas to employers for the second half of the federal fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2021. The visas, used by employers such as racehorse trainers seeking seasonal guest workers, are capped at 66,000 annually, with an even split of 33,000 available for each half of the federal government's fiscal year. Six thousand of these supplemental visas will be reserved for nationals of...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security communicated to Congressional offices its intent to release 35,000 additional H-2B visas for the summer season of Fiscal Year 2020. This non-immigrant visa program is used by many industries that need temporary non-agricultural help when domestic workers are unavailable. For the horse racing industry, racehorse trainers rely heavily on the H-2B program to fill various backside positions. While DHS has not yet released a final rule outlining specific details, the agency has provided the following: Federal regulators will release the supplementals in two phases....