PORTLAND (WGME) — tourism season is just around the corner, and Maine’s Congressional delegation is pushing for more legal immigrants to be allowed to come to Maine to work.
On Thursday in Washington D.C., Senator Susan Collins questioned the acting Secretary of the Department of Labor, Julie Su, on the urgent need to make the authorized additional H2B visas available.
She says they are crucial to help fill open jobs in Maine’s hospitality industry.
“Those are absolutely critical in my state, where 10-times the state’s population visits Maine. And I hope that you will be recommending to the department of homeland security that it make available the full additional 64,716 H2B visas for this fiscal year,” Collins said.
“In this administration, we have used the discretion given to the Department of Homeland Security, in partnership with us, to make sure that we are meeting the needs that you’ve mentioned,” Su said.
Collins says last year, 15 million tourists visited Maine and…
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