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The Foreign Visa Crackdown Is Putting Americans Out of Work

Without seasonal staff from abroad, many small businesses can’t stay open.
The Pentagoet Inn in Castine, Maine.

The Pentagoet Inn in Castine, Maine.

Photographer: Christine Collins for Bloomberg Businessweek

Kate Bridges should be waiting tables right now. She’s been a server at the lauded farm-to-table restaurant at the Pentagoet Inn in Castine, Maine, for six years, making enough during the summer season to carry her through the year. But in early June she was answering the phone at the inn, telling callers that the restaurant was closed for the foreseeable future.

“We depend on that income,” she says. “If the restaurant doesn’t open, I don’t know exactly what I’ll do. But if we don’t have cooks, then we don’t have a restaurant.”