President Donald Trump's allies are seeking to create a seasonal worker visa to get past MAGA followers' firm stance on removing migrants they think are taking jobs away from Americans, according to a new report.
A Mar-a-Lago trade group is pushing to expand worker visas and hoping MAGA loyalists, who are vocal about their anti-immigrant sentiments, will ignore the move, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The vias are the latest in a battle over business concerns and their need for foreign labor, which is in opposition to MAGA hard-liners who argue migrant workers should not work in the U.S. Trump is now at the center of the debate.
"The Seasonal Employment Alliance, which represents agricultural and resort interests among others, has for some time pushed to raise the nation’s cap on a kind of seasonal work visa called H-2B. And now, it’s banking on Trump’s own extensive use of the visas, along with a few key hires, to help its case," according to the outlet.
SEA spokesperson Gray Delany said he believes Trump supports the visas and has met "with officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House’s legislative team, and even made an effort to talk to Eric Trump, the president’s son, and other Trump Org members."
“I feel like we’re in a very good position with the administration. We’ve been told this is the one program they actually support,” Delany said.
“We work very hard to differentiate ourselves from H-1B and some of these other visa programs,” he said, explaining that the group is aiming to present the visas as what the resort members need and a "workforce visa program" and not as an "immigration program."