Trump Seasonal Visa Reversal Breaks From Foreign Labor Crackdown

Within the span of weeks, the Trump administration signaled plans to tap the brakes on seasonal work visas and then changed course, issuing the full amount allowed under the H-2B program.

The turnabout was a major industry lobbying win that underlines how short-term seasonal occupations aren’t facing the same restrictions as other foreign labor programs.

Employer groups made an intense push after the government signaled at the end of 2025 it would release only 35,000 additional H-2B visas for the coming year, cutting nearly half the number available over the past three years. Their efforts culminated in the Labor and Homeland Security departments this month authorizing more than 64,000 additional H-2B visas—nearly doubling the annual number available by statute.

That result marks a starkly different White House approach to hotels, landscapers, carnivals, and other employers with labor intensive needs over firms hiring for high-tech jobs.

Seasonal industry lobbyists said they enlisted allies in Congress to pressure the White House for a full release of H-2B visas, especially with major US tourism events like the FIFA World Cup on the horizon.

“We were really doing everything we could to explain to the administration that 35,000—while we appreciated it—we needed the full 64,716,” said Andrew Bray, vice president of government relations at the National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Their efforts were aided by muted opposition from anti-immigration groups after the first announcement on additional H-2B visas, said an industry lobbyist who requested anonymity.

Trump officials “were testing the waters” with the initial announcement and didn’t face blowback from anti-immigrant groups to deter the full release of visas, the representative said.

Policy Departure

The decision on additional visas for non-farm businesses builds on other recent wins for seasonal employers. The administration last year, for example, exempted agricultural workers on temporary H-2A visas from new consular interview requirements and issued regulations lowering their mandated pay.

Trump by contrast has added new hurdles for the H-1B visa program heavily used by tech firms, including a $100,000 fee for hires from outside the US. The government also moved to strip work permits from hundreds of thousands of immigrants covered by humanitarian protections, while adding a slew of bureaucratic hurdles to maintain employment authorization.

H-2B employers say Trump officials have been receptive to their message that the program is not about immigration, but allowing small and medium-sized US businesses to survive.

“Fundamentally, it comes down to the fact that the president himself is a program user. Mar-a-Lago uses H-2Bs,” said Tom Bortnyk, senior vice president and general counsel at másLabor, a consulting firm for businesses using seasonal visas. “They’re not strangers to the H-2 programs.”

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers linked the visa release to the termination of work permits for more than 1.3 million foreign nationals covered by parole or Temporary Protected Status—moves challenged in numerous lawsuits. The H-2B rule supports preparations for the World Cup and provides Americans with greater employment opportunities, she added.

“The Trump Administration’s number one priority is protecting American jobs and wages, while adequately responding to the demands of President Trump’s rapidly growing economy,” Rogers said.

Lobbying Push

Bray said employers didn’t make the termination of humanitarian programs part of their pitch—relatively few TPS holders work in seasonal jobs. Instead they underlined the need to address a workforce crisis for those jobs.

“Having a robust guest worker program to accurately meet demand is going to be critical for the economy to continue to thrive,” he said.

DOL and DHS released tens of thousands of visas under the discretionary cap in Trump’s first term. The Feb. 3 supplemental visa rule showed demand hasn’t abated; employers requested DOL approval for an annual average of 207,701 H-2B workers over the past half decade, easily surpassing the number allowed even after using the entire supplemental visa cap.

The recent lobbying campaign also centered in large part on Trump connections to the program. The consulting firm of Peter Petrina, board president for H-2B lobbying group Seasonal Employment Alliance, has recruited and filed worker petitions for Trump properties.

SEA didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Industry advocates have also underlined the strain that upcoming events like the World Cup and Formula One races will put on ongoing labor shortages.

Those competitions come as the hotel industry already faces a shortage of 100,000 workers, said Brett Horton, chief advocacy officer at the American Hospitality and Lodging Association.

“These large events highlight the need,” he said. “It’s certainly still there.”

Congressional Changes

Both labor unions and supporters of Trump immigration’s crackdown blasted the release of additional H-2B visas.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America said the H-2B program floods “the labor market with exploitable foreign workers.”

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the pro-immigration restriction Center for Immigration Studies, said the rule “is just a way of satisfying business interests.”

Champions of seasonal employers in Congress though—led by House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.)—have pushed for appropriations language that would exempt many users of the H-2B program from annual limits, potentially allowing even more workers than authorized under the supplemental cap.

Although that effort was unsuccessful this year, Bray and others said Harris was critical to getting all available visas released this year. Harris’ office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-N.D.), who’s helped lead bipartisan efforts on H-2B visas in the Senate, said in a statement he’s worked to include a cap exemption in appropriations bills to support businesses “who rely on seasonal workers to keep their doors open.”

Horton said AHLA will consider all options to boost visa numbers.

“Our end goal remains the same—to make sure these positions are filled,” he said.