Musings on Immigration

Multiple bills have been proposed in the Senate and House that would dramatically reform the H-1B visa program. According to MSN , these bills are intended to prevent U.S. companies from abusing the H-1B visa program and to encourage businesses to hire U.S. citizens rather than immigrants. If you own a business and you employ H-1B or L-1 workers, it is imperative that you understand how these bills could affect your company. At this point, employment visa reform seems likely, and it is vital that your company takes preemptive steps to adapt. Charles Kuck is an employment visa attorney in Atlanta who can evaluate your situation and provide comprehensive legal guidance. Mr. Kuck will answer your questions and explain how the proposed bills could affect your company’s future. Call 404-816-8611 to schedule a consultation at Kuck Immigration Partners . Let’s take a look at four proposed bills that could have a profound impact on the H-1B program: 1. The High-Skilled...

Perhaps it has been too long since USCIS has truly been held accountable for its actions that it has become desensitized to the legal constraints under which it is permitted to operate. The USCIS is not given carte blanche to make whatever changes or interpretations it wants to long-standing immigration law, without first complying with the Administrative Procedure Act (”APA”). Yet, twice in the last two months the USCIS has issued “memos” that so dramatically change the framework under which these key programs operate, that it has clearly violated the APA. USCIS has taken ignoring Federal Law to a new level with its recent actions. Of course we all know that the USCIS has been illegally changing the rules as they apply to individual cases for the last several years by engaging in “rulemaking by RFE;” making ridiculous requests for evidence, not based on any legal requirement, but rather, based upon someone’s bizarre notion of what they think the law should be, not what it really is. N...

It seems unrelenting these days. Attacks by anti-immigrationists on the two of the most useful non-immigrant visa categories, the H-1B and L-1 visas. The most recent attacks are based either on junk science or no science at all. Recently we received at the AILA National Office a letter from Professor Ray Marshall. AILA had issued a statement critical of the AFL endorsed Ray Marshall “plan” regarding immigration reform. This “plan” was highly supportive of the destructive Grassley-Durbin Anti-H-1B legislation . We were critical of this “plan” (and the Grassley-Durbin legislative proposal) because both the plan and the legislation are without merit and based on a lack of understanding of how our current employment based non-immigrant and immigration system currently works, what motivates employers to use the H-1B and L-1programs, and the tremendous historic and future benefits of these program. A key part of Mr. Marshall’s letter reads as follows: “Although we have grossly inadequate da...

The Associated Press ran an absolutely poorly researched piece on H-1B visas and the Banks receiving Bailout money from the Federal Government on Sunday. The article implied that as the Banks were taking bailout money they were simultaneously firing US workers and hiring cheap foreign labor. After I finished laughing out loud, I began to weep. I was stunned that a veteran reporter at the AP would be willing to draw this conclusion from the biased numbers drawn up by a group opposed to immigration in general and to H-1B visa holders specifically. The piece makes no effort to talk to an independent source, or to check the information against publicly available data. The article notes that the banks benefiting from bailout monies “requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,7...

The reunification of families is the foundation of our immigration system, and more importantly, the foundation of our society. Virtually every immigration law in place today is either designed to encourage families to reunite in the United States or to stay together as they immigrate. There are laws to reunite refugee families, keep the families of employment-based immigrants together, and, of course, enable a variety of close family members to immigrate to the United States if their relatives are U.S. citizens (USCs) or lawful permanent residents (LPRs). Congress has clearly and consistently emphasized the importance of families as the foundation of our overall immigration strategy. Or, at least it says it has. Current System Not Family-Friendly Unfortunately, the reality of this nation’s family-based immigration system is that it is woefully inadequate in reuniting families in any reasonable timeframe. Congress’s failure to include family members in the legalization programs of the ...