Eastern Shore crab processors welcome new foreign worker visas but say they need ‘long-term fix to survive’

Eastern Shore crab processors welcomed the federal government’s planned release of new visas to hire foreign guest workers, but they called it a one-year remedy that fails to address recurring labor shortages. “We need a long-term fix to survive,” said Jack Brooks, one of the owners of J.M. Clayton Seafood Co. in Cambridge in Dorchester County and president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said last week that it plans to release 64,716 additional H-2B visas, allowing Maryland crab processing companies and other businesses across the country — such as landscapers and resorts — more access to the temporary workers from Mexico and other countries that they say they desperately need.