Posted May 2009

What inspired you to start writing, and what has motivated you to continue writing such a prolific amount?

I've always enjoyed writing. I started out with several law review articles, but thought there was a tremendous need for more accessible materials about immigration, since there are few reported cases. Immigration law is shaped more by administrative decisions, advisory opinions, interpretive materials, government-issued Q&As, agency policy memoranda, and the like.

Considering the amount of time you must invest in your immigration practice, how are you able to produce and continually update the large number of publications that bear your name?

It all started with corporate training materials that we were producing internally. Self-publishing wasn't feasible, so Steven Bell and I realized that we needed a separate staff and organization for writing. Those initial materials eventually turned into the Immigration Procedures Handbook.

Over the years, we saw a need in the marketplace for additional titles covering other discrete topics within the field of employment-based immigration law that we were in a unique position to cover. Now, with my co-authors Careen Shannon and Dan Montalvo shouldering the bulk of the day-to-day writing and editing, and our ability to draw on the resources of the Fragomen firm, we consider the handbooks an integral part of what our firm contributes to the field.

What do you think has been the prime reason for the success of the handbooks?

We fill an important niche in the marketplace. Immigration law is extraordinarily complicated – it's considered second only to the tax code in terms of sheer complexity – and always changing. There was a real need for books like ours – that pull all of the obscure government interpretive materials together in the context of a detailed, "how-to" format and line-by-line forms instructions – to help attorneys navigate the practical aspects of this very intricate area of law. Our commitment to annual updates to reflect the constant changes in the law also makes our books especially handy.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about immigrants and immigration law?

A common misconception is that employers who hire foreign workers are doing so only in order to pay them less than U.S. workers. For example, it's not commonly understood that the H-1B visa program includes strict rules designed to ensure that foreign workers are paid at least as much as U.S. workers, if not more.

Another common misconception is that illegal immigrants are people who just didn't want to wait in line and enter the U.S. legally. In fact, for the low-skilled jobs that American workers don't want to fill and that attract undocumented immigrants, there basically isn't a line, since the Immigration and Nationality Act only provides for 10,000 permanent visas or green cards each year for low-skilled laborers, which is a miniscule number compared to the size of the U.S. labor market.

Many people seem to think of immigration law as dealing mostly with undocumented workers entering the U.S. at our southern border, or with people applying for green cards or citizenship. What's not as well known is that many immigration lawyers work to help businesses bring highly skilled noncitizens into the country to work for U.S. companies.

In fields such as computer science and engineering, where a large percentage of the students in U.S. graduate programs are actually foreign-born, it's critical that U.S. companies retain access to that talent. This is even – or especially – true in a time of economic downturn, when the creativity and energy of these highly educated, entrepreneurial-minded young people may be what we need to get the economy rolling again.

Do you have any educated guesses concerning what lies ahead for U.S. immigration law, besides continued upheaval? Do you think America will ever be able to solve its many immigration problems?

That's a difficult question to answer, since there is a complex mosaic of competing interests. First, we have labor protectionism, which seeks to restrict both temporary and permanent admissions of foreign nationals into the United States. Second, distortions in the labor market create a need for foreign workers to take jobs that U.S. workers either can't or won't perform.

Third, there is the tension between the idea of strengthening entry barriers versus granting amnesty to the undocumented population, and the related issue of creating a workable system of employment eligibility verification and workplace enforcement. Fourth, it is clear that global businesses need to access the best talent. Of course, increased immigration for any reason engenders chain migration, where persons already granted entry into the United States start to sponsor family members to immigrate.

As for what lies ahead, the Obama administration has announced that it intends to prioritize immigration reform, so while I'm not venturing any guesses, I think everyone can agree that the current system is broken and could benefit from a comprehensive overhaul.

What do you think have been the most important new trends in immigration law?

Increased government enforcement in recent years, at both the federal and state level, is enormously important. At the federal level, workplace raids and criminal prosecution have replaced the auditing of employers' records as the main focus of government action, with enormous implications for employers.

And with the failure of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level in recent years, many state legislatures – acting on the belief that the federal government has failed in its duty to enact and enforce a reasonable immigration system – have enacted tough new laws aimed at preventing the employment of unauthorized noncitizens within their borders. This latter development is why we just published the new State Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook, which covers the key state laws nationwide that impose new restrictions on employers in an effort to combat illegal immigration.

Author's Featured Title

State Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook »     

Additional Titles by this Author

Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook, 2008-2009 ed. »     

Immigration Legislation Handbook, 2009 ed. »     

Immigration Procedures Handbook, 2009-2010 ed. »     

Labor Certification Handbook, 2008-2009 ed. »     

Immigration Law and Business »     

H-1B Handbook, 2010 ed. »     

ImmForms Plus 5.4 with Handbooks »     

Immigration Business News & Comment »     

ImmForms Plus 5.4 »     

Read author's bio »