BACKGROUND: On January 20th, President Trump signed an executive order titled Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid. As a result, USAID staff were ordered to halt all current programmatic activities while “reviews of each foreign assistance program shall be ordered by the responsible department and agency heads under guidelines provided by the Secretary of State.”
Although USAID will no longer be permitted to assist in H-2 processing in the NCA countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in EL Salvador and the Ministries of Labor in Honduras and Guatemala maintain they will be able to process the requested H-2B workers without USAID assistance for this upcoming season.
Due to the reliance on USAID, especially in El Salvador, delays should be anticipated and if you plan to continue to use the ministry for processing, we recommend that get more involved in the process than you have in previous years.
This EO has put a halt to all U.S. government assisted H-2 processing in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. This coincides with the start of the peak processing season (employers with Feb.-April dates of need). USAID is no longer permitted to work on any programmatic activities, including H-2 processing.
El Salvador
**We are told that private recruiters must have an agreement with the Salvadoran Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to process returning workers recruited through the MFA but have not received this in writing**
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Director: Elsy Vasquez – ejvasquez@rree.gob.sv
- Paola Melendez – h2visa.elsalvador@rree.gob.sv
- Katy Calderon – kecalderon@rree.gob.sv
- Del Al Associates, private recruiter
- Juan Del Alamo, juan_delal@hotmail.com
- LaborMex, private recruiter
- Lydia Hock, lydia@labormex.com
- A&E H2 Processing, private recruiter
- Alejandra Luna, contact@a-eh2.com
- Global Partners, private recruiter
- Luis Soto, lsoto@globpartners.com
Guatemala
- Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
- Sara Donis, sdonis@mintrabajob.gob.gt
- Andrea Melendez, employersgt2@mintrabajo.gob.gt
- Del Al Associates, private recruiter
- Juan Del Alamo, juan_delal@hotmail.com
- LaborMex, private recruiter
- Lydia Hock, lydia@labormex.com
- The Cordons, private recruiter
- Melissa Cordon, thecordons@yahoo.com
- Balam Hunters, private recruiter
- Geovanna Salazar, gsalazar@balamhunters.com (former Vice-Minister of Labor)
Honduras
- Ministry of Labor
- pttusa@trabajo.gob.hn (working on getting current best ministry contacts)
- Del Al Associates, private recruiter
- Juan Del Alamo, juan_delal@hotmail.com
- LaborMex, private recruiter
- Lydia Hock, lydia@labormex.com
- Navy Financial, private recruiter
- Joanly De Los Santos, joanly@navyfinancial.com
As this continues to develop we will work to ensure we provide the best possible resources for success in bringing workers from Northern Central America.