The United States stands to benefit from a more robust guest worker program. H2-A and B visas, which enable employers to fill temporary, low-skill jobs with foreign workers, should be expanded by number, category and country on a long-term basis to allow more migrant laborers to participate in the U.S. economy. 

In response to persistent worker shortages sharpened by the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security has acted to temporarily expand the number of migrant laborer visas for several years in a row. However, these guest worker visas are limited to jobs of a temporary or seasonal nature, which greatly restricts employers’ ability to fill empty positions with migrant workers. Dropping this requirement would help address labor shortages, benefitting American businesses and consumers alike. 

Since the pandemic began, firms have passed the spiking costs associated with labor shortages on to consumers at a rate outpacing nominal wage growth. At a time of low unemployment and record job postings, an influx of foreign workers would reduce the operating costs of firms in areas hit hard by labor shortages. This would ease inflationary pressures, thereby lowering the cost of living for consumers. 

Expanding guest worker visas would also reduce exploitation. In the absence of available guest worker visas, many individuals still enter without documentation, making them much more vulnerable to abuse. Too often, the mistreatment of undocumented workers goes unreported. Abusers wield their employees’ undocumented status against them, threatening to retaliate by calling ICE. Expanding visas would protect migrant laborers by granting them legal status, thereby empowering them to report exploitation without fear of deportation. Providing more opportunities for legal entry would also incentivize American businesses to legally transport workers to the United States, cutting dangerous, cartel-affiliated coyotes out of the equation.

Expanding migrant visas could also reduce illegal immigration. Guest worker programs have consistently reduced the number of unauthorized entries by even more than the number of visas issued. From 1996 to 2019, for every Mexican guest worker issued a visa, there was an associated decline of U.S.-Mexico border apprehensions. This phenomenon results from a shift in incentives. Without a robust guest worker program in place, those who play by the rules and delay entry in the hopes of working in the United States legally go largely unrewarded, hence the appeal of entering or remaining in the country without proper documentation. However, as history has evidenced, guest worker programs change this calculus for migrants. Being caught without authorization jeopardizes one’s chance of receiving a legal visa in the future. When obtaining a visa is a realistic hope, many will choose to wait.

The countries in which these visas are granted should also be expanded. Current U.S. immigration policy fails to reflect shifts in the Western Hemisphere’s migration patterns. Almost all H-2 visas are granted to Mexicans despite their relatively lower rates of migration. In 2019, Central Americans received only 3 percent of guest worker visas even as they represented 74 percent of border arrests. It’s time our guest worker policies reflect this transition by expanding access to temporary worker visas to citizens of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Doing so would reduce the flow of undocumented migrants while expanding economic opportunity to foreign workers who stand to benefit from jobs American firms are desperate to fill.

Opponents of guest worker programs argue that migrants exert a downward pressure on wages, disenfranchising low-skilled American workers. While expanding the workforce almost by definition decreases labor bargaining power to some degree, studies have shown that the impact is negligible. As Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown writes, “undocumented workers more often work the unpleasant, back-breaking jobs that native-born workers are not willing to do”(2017). In essence, migrants complement the domestic workforce more than they compete with it. 

Implementing a comprehensive guest-worker program would boost the American economy, reduce the dangers associated with undocumented immigration, and provide economic opportunities for foreign workers. It is by far the most humane, efficient, and mutually beneficial way to address undocumented migration in the 21st century.