Comment Submitted by B.Baker

Whereas, current regulations already require a certain degree of employer attestations which are seldom verified by the USCIS Service Center, and Wlhereas "such workers may not displace U.S. workers who are capable of performing such services or labor," and Whereas, a petition may apply to more than one location, and Whereas, the the petitioner shall not materially change the information provided on the Form I-129 and the temporary labor certification, including, but not limited to, the alien workers' duties, place of employment, nor the entities for which the duties will be performed, There MUST be public access to all H2-B visa applications for oversight purposes and it should be required that the appropriate Labor Union be notified in order that they may substantiate that there are indeed no available workers and that the visa workers are not undercutting area wages. Whereas, an employer may, for example, submit a labor certification application requesting workers from January 1 to October 31; and this labor certification could be filed as early as September 1 of the previous year, because the application for labor certification may be submitted to DOL as early as 120 days prior to the stated date of need -- How is it possible that this employer and the Dept. of Labor are able to verify a labor shortage will actually exist at the stated time of Jan 1 to Oct. 31? Do they have "crystal balls"? Whereas, a long-term job for many US construction workers is one that lasts approx. 6 months, how can this proposed rule possibly justify explicitly providing that H-2B visas could last up to three years? Furthermore, the USCIS is proposing to allow employers to petition for the number of positions sought rather than name the individual alien(s), but fails to explain how these unnamed H-2B visa holders are going to be tracked in order to determine whether they have reached the three-year ceiling on H-2B nonimmigrant status. Also, how will the unnamed visa holders be tracked for the substitution of beneficiary purposes? Finally, although this proposed rule dramatically relaxes employer-petitioner regulations, the DHS is only in "discussions" concerning whether to delegate authority to the DOL concerning the establishment of any enforcement process to investigate employers' compliance with H-2B requirements. And, any INA enforcement procedures that are currently in place are merely administrative remedies. There must be specific procedures for the public to follow in filing a complaint alleging an H-2B visa petition violation; specific conditions that must be met by a designated authority in investigating these complaints and stiff criminal enforcement procedures and penalties for employer violations of the H-2B visa requirements.