Jerry Greene says he can’t find enough American workers for his bakery, so he has to go to other countries to find them.

This weekend, he’ll fly to Guatemala to help two of his workers through the complicated process of applying for a visa.

It’s part of life for an American small business owner, Greene says, when the government doesn’t give out nearly enough visas to fill all the jobs created by a still-robust economy.

“People are always saying ‘You should hire college students,’” Greene says. But, he says, college students and ski bums don’t last long, and their schedules aren’t compatible with Baked in Telluride. Without foreign workers, he says, “There’s nobody.”
So, last week, the jet-setting Greene flew to Washington, D.C., to lobby congressmen and senators to save a program that gives out temporary visas to seasonal workers.
He went with 700 other business owners connected to the group Save Small Business, and Greene worked the halls of Congress.

“Our existence was threatened,” Greene says. “I’m chronically short of labor even with the [temporary worker] program.”

The program, known as H2b, gives out 66,000 visas each year, is used by ski resorts, summer camps and landscape companies.

For the past three years, the program has carried an exception wherein returning workers aren’t counted against the 66,000 cap. And that provision was in danger of being eviscerated.

Save Small Business, an organization made up mostly of landscaping companies, says that the exception is necessary for them to survive.

“In a non-immigrant world, you’d be standing in line forever to get your lawn mown,” Greene says. “We’re trying to hire legal workers. The true demand for seasonal workers is vastly, hugely higher than those who come on H2b visas.”

Greene’s Colorado coalition met face-to-face with three House members and one senator. The Salazar brothers seemed supportive, Greene says, and so did Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who spoke about his immigrant parents.

In the offices of Tom Tancredo, however, the business owners met ideological resistance. Tancredo has urged that the borders be sealed and no more migrants let in, ever.

In a year when immigration is becoming a huge issue, the returning-worker exception seemed to be caught up in a game of politics.

Supporters of immigrants hoped that keeping the number of temporary visas low would increase pressure for comprehensive immigration reform.

Opponents of the legislation, such as Tancredo, said that importing any labor steals jobs from Americans.

Employing any kind of foreign worker is getting increasingly difficult, Greene says, as politicians and media bloviators engage in a kind of anti-immigrant arms race, trying to ratchet up the tough-guy rhetoric about cracking down on illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, few talk about increasing the number of visas so more immigrants can come legally.

Juan Carlos López, 27, is one of the workers who depend on the temporary visa program. He works for Baked In Telluride for a four month stretch from December to March, then returns to Guadalajara, Mexico, for two months during the off-season, then comes back again in June for another four month stretch. Greene says he pays for his workers’ airfare to go home.

López plans to return to Mexico eventually to live. But he only made about $400 a month there, and makes much more in Colorado. Without the visa program, he likely couldn’t come.

After the 700 business owners campaigned and persuaded, the exception was tacked onto an omnibus funding bill that funds all kinds of programs, making it difficult to cut out. It’s not law yet, but it may soon be.

“People think an individual can influence their democracy, that an individual can’t influence their congress. It makes a difference. We made a difference in just one day,” Greene says. “I just hope we don’t have to do this every year.”