Border Closing, Visa Curbs Push Maryland Crab Houses to Brink

The new coronavirus pandemic, on top of the Trump administration’s caps on visas for temporary workers, may leave Maryland’s crab picking houses without the Mexican seasonal workers they’ve long relied on—less than a month away from the start of the state’s crabbing season.

President Donald Trump’s March 20 move to close the U.S.-Mexico border further complicated Maryland crabbers’ quandary. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf pledged that “essential commercial activities will not be impacted,” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said H-2A agricultural-worker visas were a federal priority. Still, the outlook on the H-2B program that supplies crab pickers is ...