Foreign athletes clamor for visas

U.S. Senate might aid minor-leaguers

WASHINGTON - When Carolina Hurricanes forward Josef Vasicek, a native of the Czech Republic, needs his work visa each season, the process goes like this:

He walks into the U.S. Embassy in Prague. He waits in line, then has a brief chat with a consul. He gets the visa.

"I've never had a problem with it," Vasicek said this week.

Vasicek, 23, is a major-leaguer, one of the best hockey players in the world. He gets a special pass, the P-1 visa, dedicated to the world's top athletes and entertainers.

Foreign-born minor-leaguers -- whether they play hockey in a rural Northern town or baseball with the Durham Bulls -- get no such privileges. They stand in line for seasonal worker visas, competing for the same passes used by temporary workers in the hotel and restaurant industries.

As the U.S. Senate continues its debate on new immigration policies for the nation, a senator from the hockey-loving state of Maine wants to change life for those minor-leaguers.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, has introduced an amendment that would expand P-1 visas to them.

She pushed it after the minor-league Lewiston Maineiacs hockey team had to cancel games last season because it couldn't get many of its foreign-born players into the United States.

Collins' amendment would allow minor-league teams to bring in international prospects year-round. And proponents say it could reverberate in minor-league rosters throughout baseball. North Carolina has 10 minor-league baseball teams, among the most in the nation, including the Bulls and the Carolina Mudcats of Zebulon.

Athletics has become a global industry. And just as business leaders in other industries say they can't manage without immigrants, sports franchises say they need international labor to fill benches and dugouts.

"There are minor-leaguers we'd like to roster but we can't, because we can't get them into the country," said Stan Brand, vice president of Minor League Baseball.

Jason Karmanos, vice president and assistant general manager of the Hurricanes, said the current rules hurt the youngest players in hockey's rookie leagues, those trying to prove themselves before being drafted into the NHL.

"It has presented difficulties in the past," Karmanos said. "If that gets resolved, it would definitely make the process smoother."

Seasonal visas capped

The United States puts a cap on the number of seasonal visas it hands out each year, and the cap is often reached just a few months into the fiscal year. Since Sept. 11, 2001, immigration officials have been strictly enforcing the limit.

"Minor-leaguers are lumped into the rest of the visas with clam-shuckers and chambermaids and everybody else who tries to get into this country," Brand said.

Two years ago, nearly 300 baseball players couldn't come into the country because of the seasonal cap, he said. Since then, ball clubs have tried to plan ahead, but they still want the visa change.

The immigration rules frustrate players who have to stay home and managers who want a look at young talent.

In baseball, major-league teams bring in players during the summer from foreign countries, try them out for a few weeks on a minor-league team such as the Mudcats, then send them home and try out others.

"If we sign a guy in July and the visas are used, we can't bring him in until the following year," said Jim Fleming, vice president for player development and scouting for the Florida Marlins, the parent club of the Mudcats.

Among the Mudcats' players is pitcher Anibal Sánchez of Venezuela. Sanchez is a top prospect, already on the Marlins' main roster, so he has a P-1 visa.

But the team has three foreign-born outfielders on seasonal visas.

If teams can't get foreign-born players late in the season, it could be difficult to fill their minor-league rosters, said John Hopkins, president of the Carolina League in Greensboro.

"Minor-league baseball has a great tradition in North Carolina," Hopkins said. "And the involvement of Latin American and Caribbean players is long."

Farm teams overseas?

His worst fear is that a dearth of foreign-born players would force Major League Baseball to start farm teams overseas, hurting minor-league teams here.

In hockey, the Hurricanes have players from countries including Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the Ukraine.

For now, their foreign-born recruits often come straight from their home countries without playing in the minors. Vasicek was on a championship team in Europe.

Oleg Tverdovsky, a Moscow-born defender, has his green card now. But he hears of the frustrations from friends.

"I've heard that American consulates are giving a lot of trouble to athletes trying to get a visa," said Tverdovsky, 29, as he shed his pads in the locker room at the Verizon Center in Washington after a morning practice skate before a game with the Washington Capitals. "They say, 'I have no reason for you to go.' "

To Tverdovsky, the proposal to bring in more workers makes sense for the economy.

"I work here," he said. "I make money. I pay my taxes. How can they work if they won't let them in the country?"