In recent weeks, managers of the nation’s resorts, plant nurseries, fish processors and racetracks started getting worried.

The Trump administration had yet to release a batch of H-2B visas — those available for seasonal businesses that often can’t find enough workers domestically to fulfill demand.

Usually, the Department of Homeland Security releases them a few days after receiving more applications than the number of visas allowed for the second half of the year. That cap was reached March 5, but no announcement came. Industry lobbyists got members of Congress to reach out on their behalf, put on a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and sent a letter urging the administration to continue issuing the visas.

“It needs to be done by April 1, otherwise we all get backed up,” said Greg Chiecko, the president of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association, which represents traveling carnival producers. “We’ve heard that they’re going to, but they’re being very deliberate in waiting a little bit.”

Finally, on Wednesday, a news release announced that the visas would continue to flow, allowing businesses that banked on having them for the summer to move forward with their plans.

But the anxiety reflected a deep uncertainty about where President Donald Trump is headed on legal immigration programs, both temporary and permanent, as the administration ramps up deportations and moves to end the legal status of millions who arrived in recent years. Those actions will squeeze the labor supply that many employers depend on — and they’re using the crackdown to argue for broader channels for people to come and work.

Last week, the American Business Immigration Coalition — a group representing employers of immigrants — gathered its members in Washington to plead their case with lawmakers. Their refrain: Congress can both stop illegal migration and bring more people in legally, as well as give those already here a chance to stay.

The organization’s chair, Bob Worsley, runs a modular housing construction firm in Arizona, where he has long struggled to find enough workers. A Republican, he won a state Senate seat in 2012 in part to oppose further immigrant crackdowns in the state after several high-profile efforts.

“This is kind of like a dam that’s holding back water — the water is going to find a way to get past the dam, just by sheer force,” Worsley said. “You can secure the border, but if you don’t fix immigration so people can come legally, it will happen again.”

Trump has said he’s willing to let in more people legally, and he is a frequent user of short-term employment visas at his resorts, golf clubs and winery. Nevertheless, as with other plans for immigration policy beyond the current focus on enforcement, the administration’s intentions remain cloudy. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

A powerful restrictionist contingent in the White House led by Stephen Miller, a deputy chief of staff, has argued that letting people in even on a controlled, temporary basis hasn’t adequately protected domestic workers. (The Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group for civil rights, has long criticized the programs as well.)

Project 2025, the blueprint drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation that the administration has so far largely followed, recommends winding down the H-2A and H-2B visas, which are often called guest-worker visas and are good for up to 10 months. Instead, the document proposed encouraging employers to invest in automation instead.

But Worsley’s group sees an opening, once Trump is satisfied with his progress on enforcement and Congress has dealt with a raft of expiring tax cuts, to expand temporary worker visas and to create a path to legal status for millions of people who have lived in the United States without legal status for years.

The group organized a news conference last week to celebrate the reintroduction of key legislation and to make the Republican argument for passing it.

One bill, endorsed by the United Farm Workers union, would allow some agricultural workers to stay in the United States legally, as well as provide more flexible terms for those with work visas.

A sponsor of the measure, Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican who owns an 850-acre farm in Washington state, said his colleagues had felt unable to act while the border remained chaotic. “That excuse no longer exists,” Newhouse said. “I truly think this is the Congress that we can make it happen.”

Rep. María Salazar, R-Fla., proposed something more sweeping: the Dignity Act, which would create a path to legal residence for workers lacking lawful immigration status, reform existing visa programs and beef up border security. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus endorsed the bill last fall, and Salazar argues that it does enough for all sides to gather majority support.