Transcript
The decision is set to disrupt construction projects in both Guam and the Northern Marianas where the Philippines has been the main source of foreign labour for decades.
The H2-B visa had allowed the construction and health sectors in both US territories to fill local shortages.
Currently all 606 H2-B workers on Guam are from the Philippines.
The Guam lawyer Jennifer Davis says the new restrictions, driven by concerns about overstayers on the US mainland, pose yet another challenge for the island's construction contractors.
"And anyone who has a non-military project...a lot of them shut their doors, they just can't get the workers to support it. Guam's a very small island. The military build-up affects all businesses whether they're inside defence or outside defence. And so this has been an ongoing battle here on the island."
Ms Davis says the US military relocation from Japan and build-up on Guam allows for 4000 foreign workers a year, including from the Philippines.
There were around 3000 H2-B workers on Guam in the previous year.
Jennifer Davis says demand in the civilian construction sector will surge with the influx of military personnel and activity.
However she says they're being hamstrung by the H2-B restrictions.
"If we want to build another wing on the hospital to support healthcare for the additional population coming on to Guam, that's not a military contract but it's related to the influx of population coming to Guam."
Billions of dollars are being invested by the US military for the build-up.
The president of the Guam Contractors Association James Martinez says the military build-up isn't affected by the removal of the Philippines from the H2 visa programme.
"We have what we call the National Defence Authorization Act which has appropriations for military spending and in this act for fiscal year 2019, they had put provisions we could still bring in workers from the Philippines to work on the military related projects."
He says a slowdown in construction will cause a domino effect.
"The realtors aren't going to have any new homes that they can buy and sell, and that's where they generate revenue. The banking industry, some of their revenues come from mortgages on loans they've put out to purchase new homes and loans for construction."
He says construction workers will be needed in order to raise finance for new developments.
Guam's governor Lou Leon Guerrero has requested the territory be exempted from the US ban saying it places a difficult burden on them.
"We went from like 3000 construction workers to now literally zero and it's definitely impacting our economy and the cost of construction, the cost of building homes. Homes have been delayed. Commercial projects have been delayed and I'm pretty sure it's going to impact on the pace of the military build-up."
Meanwhile in the neighbouring Northern Marianas, our correspondent Mark Rabago says the restriction on Philippines workers there poses a threat to the recovery from recent typhoons, and to the booming tourism industry.
"Gaming was approved a couple of years back. There's been a boom in construction. Businessmen are coming here. The biggest investor is Best Sunshine or Imperial Pacific and they're building a 7-billion dollar casino complex all over the island. So it's really unfortunate that the H2-B category was banned in the Philippines which is the CNMI's main source of labour."
Politicians from both US territories and the Philippines are lobbying Washington to try and resolve the deadlock before the construction crisis worsens.
