[ OUR OPINION ]
SECURITY precautions have created a slowdown in the issuing of all kinds of American visas to foreigners. However, federal labor requirements -- more than terror-related concerns -- threaten to make it difficult for Hawaii's fishing industry to hire foreign fishermen. The government should find a way to protect the practice of hiring foreign fishermen without creating security risks. Labor rules should
allow foreign fishermen
THE ISSUE The immigration service has decided to require that foreign fishermen obtain visas to work on Hawaii-based vessels.
Foreign employees of Hawaii-based fishing companies should be subjected to the visa process for security reasons. The Immigration and Naturalization Service could satisfy the labor rules by recognizing the need for foreign workers in Hawaii's longline fishing industry and applying such a blanket recognition to their visa applications.
About 300 foreigners, mostly from the Philippines, comprise about 60 percent of Hawaii's longline fishing industry. Immigration law allows foreigners to obtain permission -- called a "transit without visa" privilege -- to pass through the United States on their way to foreign destinations. Foreigners, including crew members on other than U.S.-based fishing boats, may obtain such permission from American consulates.
The INS has decided that foreign fishermen working for Hawaii-based companies, who routinely have been granted transit-without-visa privileges, must instead obtain temporary work visas. That requires that they gain permission from both the INS and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The INS normally takes about 100 days to clear visas, which are issued by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, the CIA and FBI have compared all visa applications against lists of criminals or terrorism suspects, delaying applications from all over the world.
All visas should undergo such checks because they allow foreigners entry to the United States. Allowing any entry without such checks would create a dangerous opportunity for terrorists. As the home of the Muslim insurgent group Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to al-Qaida, the Philippines are a potential source of terrorism.
Delays in approving temporary work permits are caused less by those security checks than by the Labor Department's requirement that "there are insufficient American workers" to perform the jobs to be filled by foreigners, explains Donald A. Radcliffe, the INS district director. Americans may be available for the jobs, but not at the wage level of $400 to $500 a month paid to the foreign fishermen. Longline fishing owners generally pay for travel, food and lodging.
"I've talked to some of the Filipino guys and they really like being here," says Scott Barrows, general manager of the Hawaii Longline Association. "The money is really good for them." Many of the Filipino fisherman are known to use the money to pay for their children's college tuition.
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