I totally missed this when it happened in 2006, but I'm happy to report that the pressing national problem of not enough Dominican third basemen playing for the Peoria Chiefs minor league team was totally solved by Congress and President Bush in 2006. There are some jobs Americans just won't do!

Sen. Diane Feinstein proudly announced on 12/11/06:

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that legislation to ease visa restrictions on athletes from other countries participating in minor league sports leagues, competitions, or performances has been approved by Congress and now goes to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

The COMPETE Act passed the Senate on Wednesday, December 7, by unanimous consent. The bill then passed the House of Representatives by voice vote on Friday, December 9, 2006.

"The COMPETE Act allows top-notch athletes from around the world the opportunity to compete and perform in the United States without facing unfair and unnecessary visa restrictions,” Senator Feinstein said. "There’s no reason that minor league athletes should face tougher visa restrictions than their counterparts in the major leagues. Once signed into law, this bill will provide a level playing field for all foreign athletes seeking to compete in the United States.”

Minor league athletes from other countries currently face much stricter visa restrictions than their major league counterparts. Major league athletes are eligible for ”P” visas, but minor league athletes currently must enter the country as part of the H-2B seasonal worker visa program.

This has been a problem in recent years because the H2-B cap of 66,000 visas has been met in the first few months of the fiscal year, leaving foreign minor league athletes with little or no opportunity to enter the United States. As a result, minor league baseball, basketball, hockey, and ice skating programs in the United States have been prevented from recruiting hundreds of foreign athletes each year.

The COMPETE Act would reclassify minor league athletes so that they are eligible to enter the country under the ”P” visa category. ...

Sports organizations benefiting from the COMPETE Act include:

• Major League Baseball, which was unable to bring 350 baseball players to the United States in the 2004 and 2005 seasons when the H-2B visa caps were filled before they were able to provide visas for minor league players they wanted to recruit.

Keep in mind that the minor leagues were already about half foreign, so this law just meant that major league teams can bring in more marginal prospects unlikely to make it in the majors, dropouts who usually wind up staying illegally in the U.S. after they get cut. MLB prefers to employ Dominicans as minor league cannon fodder because they don't have to draft them like they have to draft Americans and Puerto Ricans, so they are cheaper.