The Aspen Daily News reports 57 foreign ski instructor set to work for the Aspen Skiing Company learned last week they won’t be hired for the coming season because the SkiCo balked at a new Obama administration rule change to the H2-B visa program requiring employers to pay travels costs for international workers.

Aspen was already planning to significantly curtail its H2-B visa hires because of the down economy and rising unemployment numbers in the United States, but it still planned to hire some foreign workers who are skilled seasonal employees who often work year-round because of the seasonal difference between the northern and southern hemispheres.

“These people were vital and important employees,” SkiCo spokesman Jeff Hanle told the Daily News. “It certainly wasn’t an easy decision.”

The last several years have been tough for longtime H2-B workers in the ski industry, many of whom have been returning to Colorado resorts for 10 or more years and add an international flavor for destination resorts.

The Colorado ski industry had been seeking a seasonal exemption for returning foreign workers so they wouldn’t count against the H2-B visa cap. But under the Bush administration that exemption was caught up in seemingly endless immigration reform debate – not exactly a high priority for the Obama administration either given the ongoing battles over health care and climate change.

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Speaking before a University of Denver panel studying the impacts of immigration, Ritter said the 2006 laws adopted during a special legislative session –- setting stricter standards to receive state benefits –- have made it more difficult for tourism-based industries to find workers.

This ski season, in the wake of the overall economic meltdown and rising unemployment nationally, ski areas have actually been turning foreign workers away. But in the past the industry was heavily reliant on H2-B visas for workers from Europe, South America and Australia who operate chairlifts, staff restaurants and hotels, teach skiing and drive buses.

Most industry experts, though, say the biggest hurdle for ski areas trying to attract foreign workers has been congressional gridlock over comprehensive immigration reform.

Industry executives want to increase the number of H2-B visas and allow workers to return season after season, but Congress has lumped that request in with the debate over illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America.

Ritter on Thursday also said the agricultural industry along Colorado’s Front Range is being hurt by a lack of workers because of the 2006 laws.

The DU panel is expected to produce a report with policy recommendations on immigration issues in December.