{"id":339,"date":"2023-08-11T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maslabor.criticaldev.site\/2023\/08\/11\/gettingseriousaboutthenortherntriangle\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:29:39","slug":"gettingseriousaboutthenortherntriangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maslabor.com\/es\/2023\/08\/11\/gettingseriousaboutthenortherntriangle\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Serious about the Northern Triangle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The H-2B program has always been something of a political football<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The reasons for this should be obvious: as a misunderstood foreign guestworker program, H-2B<\/a> tends to get swept up in the larger immigration debate, leading to strange bedfellows between the nativists (\u201cthey\u2019re taking our jobs!\u201d) and organized labor (also, \u201cthey\u2019re taking our jobs!\u201d). The electorate is also largely ignorant of the program\u2019s existence, let alone its importance to the American economy<\/span><\/a>. They say comprehensive immigration reform will never happen in an election year, and these days it certainly seems like every year is an election year.<\/p>\n

And so, it is always interesting to see the concoctions and schemes that bureaucrats and politicians alike sneak into the program when the industry lobbies for additional visas (\u201ccap relief<\/span><\/a>\u201d). Likely the most significant of such, at least in recent history, has been the Northern Triangle initiative \u2013 a well-intentioned, systematic plan to increase H-2B worker volume from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.<\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The initiative\u2019s roots can largely be traced back to the Trump Administration\u2019s fury over the migrant caravans<\/span><\/a> <\/span>coming from those countries at the same time the former president was pounding his literal and proverbial fists over illegal immigration. Those initial rage tweets turned into concrete policy action, first in the form of a bilateral cooperation agreement<\/span><\/a> between the U.S. Department of Labor and the Guatemalan Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and later the administration\u2019s use of the H-2B program as a geopolitical bargaining chip to advance the president\u2019s domestic agenda.<\/p>\n

With the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)<\/span><\/a>, the Trump Administration created new incentives for the Northern Triangle governments to clamp down on illegal immigration, specifically by pushing for increased nonimmigrant job opportunities from those countries. To some extent, the idea is a public policy win-win<\/span>: H-2B employers have access to more visas and Central American workers have access to lucrative U.S. job opportunities conditioned on them returning home each year. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that this policy was enthusiastically continued and expanded<\/span><\/a> by the incoming Biden Administration (which added Haiti to the mix).<\/p>\n

Growing pains have limited program adoption<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But like anything else in the H-2B program, the devil is in the details. While there have been some success stories, and certainly improvement since its inception<\/span><\/a>, the initiative continues to be plagued with problems that make it unpalatable to many H-2B employers. The reality is that the Northern Triangle operations continue to fall short of the State Department\u2019s comparatively well-oiled machine in Mexico.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge relates to delayed worker arrivals. There continue to be significant issues with consular capacity, efficiency, and competence, as well as disproportionately high rates of Section 221(g) administrative processing cases<\/span><\/a>, amplifying the initial delays. Poor communication has also contributed to the dysfunction, with the relevant agencies often slow to act and even slower to respond.<\/p>\n

There has also been a high rate of abscondment and worker discontent. Part of the issue here may be the ministries\u2019 failure to properly screen and vet the workers they\u2019re pushing through the system. Another issue may be their failure to apprise workers of the terms and conditions of employment, resulting in workers with outsized and inaccurate expectations about their earning potential or the nature of the work. Regardless of the underlying cause (or causes), these issues are very real and serve as the biggest impediment to widespread adoption of a Northern Triangle strategy.<\/p>\n

There is a path to success in the Northern Triangle<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This criticism is not intended to disparage the efforts or the concept itself; to the contrary, it\u2019s out of a legitimate desire to improve. As an H-2B agent, we have every incentive to increase visa availability and keep our clients happy with workers\u2019 on-time arrival. And to date, our relationships with the ministries have been entirely diplomatic and cordial. We have, on numerous occasions, met with high-level delegations from each of the ministries and found them to be entirely receptive to feedback and willing to engage with industry stakeholders. Intent is not at issue, but rather, the execution of the intent.<\/p>\n

If all parties are serious about making the Northern Triangle work, there needs to be continued improvement across all functions of the initiative \u2013 both on the ministry side as well as the U.S. government. Otherwise, H-2B employers will justifiably approach the Northern Triangle initiative with skepticism, distrust, or in some cases outright hostility.<\/p>\n

On the wish list:<\/p>\n