|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Meet
Pierre & Blog |
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Saga
By Pierre
Bonnefil
On June 19, 2008, my firm, Epstein
Becker and Green, P.C., co-hosted a very
special event at the Yale Club in New
York along with the Mexican Law firm,
Bryan, Gonzalez, Vargas y Gonzalez-Baz,
S,C. and Pinnacle Achievement President
Daniel Gutierrez. It was designed to be
an informal meet-and-greet of the new
Consul General of Mexico, Ambassador
Ruben Beltran Guerrero. The evening
turned out to be a success, because of
the positive energy and the sheer
enthusiasm of the participants. As
expected, Ambassador Beltran was
charming and presented a number of
interesting points regarding Mexico and
the US and the need to continue working
together as business partners—especially
during these difficult economic times. |
|
He also stated that the Mexicans and the
Hispanics, in general, are a very big
part of this country, and will also
continue to be an integral part of the
economic solution and prosperity of the
US and its neighbors to the south.
He added further, that in an attempt to
assist the Hispanic communities of the
tri-state area, he and other Consul
Generals were going to host the June 21
Feria Consular Latinoamericana in
Harrison, New Jersey, Here the
consulates Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru,
the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay
provided services to their constituents.
It would be the first time that several
consulates of Latin America in the U.S
came together to provide services in a
joint fashion simultaneously. I found
this to be a strong step in the right
direction and something on which I
commend Ambassador Beltran and the other
eight consulates that participated in
this ground breaking event.
This is a strong representation to the
world of what we can accomplish as a
group, if we put our heads together and
work for the greater good of our people
There is strength in our diversity.
However, as similar or different as we
may be, we ultimately face the same
problems on a daily basis—especially in
the larger immigration context. As
mentioned in last month’s segment , the
immigrant community is facing an uphill
battle because of the lack of
comprehensive immigration reform. The
individual states have been trying on
their own to come up with immigration
reform, which has proved to be quite
messy. Since a number of the state
immigration laws contradict each other
on immigration compliance, employers who
have offices/facilities in different
states have a compliance nightmare on
their plates.
With regards to immigration reform, I
was recently asked to prepare a position
paper for one of my clients, in which I
was asked to set forth the concerns
facing big business in this fight for
immigration reform. During my research
and interview process, I concluded that
yes, we need to take care of the
undocumented and the problems they are
facing, but that it is just as important
to keep our sights on the problems
facing big businesses in their attempt
to hire the best and the brightest, who
often times are foreign nationals.
In order to get an idea of the horrible
state the business of immigration is in,
all we have to do is look at the ill
fated H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.
The H-1B visa is the workhorse of the
business immigration practice since it
provides professionals with the
opportunity to accept temporary
employment with US employers. This year,
as in the last two years, the
immigration practitioners were faced
with a very hectic task: putting
together H-1B petitions and filing them
on April 1—with no real guarantee that
our petitions would even be accepted.
The USCIS provided us with a strict
guide as to exactly how the petitions
had to be prepared and set forth a zero
tolerance policy for non compliance.
After the random lottery was announced
and conducted, we received filing
receipts for those who were lucky enough
to be accepted and rejections for those
who were not selected. That is when the
real “fun” began. We had to notify those
unfortunate applicants that their
petitions were not selected. As can be
imagined, the news of non-selection was
not well received by the corporations
and their employees.
We then began the mad scramble to come
up with a plan of action for each of
these unlucky people. As many of my
corporate clients have told me over and
over again: How are we expected to run a
business in this way? Our hand-picked
prospective employees are subject to an
arbitrary and random selection process,
which we can not prepare influence in
any way, what can we do? They added
further that in order to remain
competitive in these trying economic
times it is imperative that they be able
to attract the best and brightest--but
that under the current immigration
system this is impossible.
Many of the immigrants who would have
been more than happy to remain in this
country have set their eyes on other
more immigrant friendly countries and
this, unfortunately, is not helping us
compete in today’s economy. We are
rapidly losing our edge and our ability
to compete with other countries
vis-ŕ-vis the recruitment and employment
of the next generation of scientists and
other business professionals. As a
reaction to the above, many employers
have set up operations in Canada and
Europe where they can more easily
navigate the immigration the immigration
minefield.
I am aware that we face an uphill battle
with the illegal immigrants in this
country but we must not lose track of
the professionals and their plight.
Without these two groups we are in
danger of losing our standing in the
world, as a country that is immigrant
friendly.
View all of
Pierre's Blog
Pierre Bonnefil's Bio
Pierre
Bonnefil is a member of the firm in the Immigration
practice in the firm’s New York office. He also is a
member of the firm’s Hispanic Business Group and
International Trade practice. Mr. Bonnefil, who has
served as an Attorney General Honors Attorney with
the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),
has extensive experience representing both companies
and individuals.
Currently, Mr. Bonnefil:
- Acts as Immigration Counsel for the French
Consulate General in New York
- Represents clients in immigration court, before
various offices of the USCIS, the Department of
Labor, and the Department of State, and before local
departments of labor
- Counsels clients as to their legal rights and
assists them in preparing and processing petitions
to acquire temporary visas or permanent residence in
the U.S.
- Prepares and gives presentations to clients on
pertinent immigration issues.
As an attorney with the USCIS, Mr. Bonnefil
evaluated, prepared, and prosecuted cases against
detained aliens in
immigration court.
Mr. Bonnefil has hosted and appeared on numerous
television and radio programs on immigration. He has
lectured at St. John’s University School of Law and
served as an Immigration Counselor at Medgar Evers
College of the City University of New York. Mr.
Bonnefil has written on such topics as “Global
Immigration for the Multinational” and “Illegal
Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act.”
Practice Area:
Immigration Law .
© Babbalu.com, All rights reserved. No original content articles on this site can be reproduced by any means, print, electronic or any other, without prior written permission of Babbalu.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
