Business and the Workforce
Immigrants not only bring diverse skills and perspectives to the U.S. workforce, they often fill employment gaps in crucial fields. We advocate for expanded work visas and related programs so our labor force can continue to benefit from immigrant workers and remain competitive in the global economy
Republican and Prominent Maryland Businessman Says Immigration Reform Must Complement Border Security
Today, Manuel “Manny” A. Rosales is the CEO of a global IT firm and has had a long career helping small businesses expand into foreign markets. He has served in several leadership positions, including as vice president of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, commissioner to California’s Small Business Development Board,… Read More
What You Need to Know About the Temporary Worker Bill Introduced by Senator Flake
Last week, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced the Willing Workers and Willing Employers Act of 2016, which would establish a 10-year guest worker pilot program. According to Flake, the bill offers new thinking on how to bridge the gap between existing temporary worker programs for seasonal workers and… Read More
As Immigration Process Crawls, Many Bright Workers Leave the Country, Says Immigrant Tech Worker
Shri Balachandran, a technology specialist in Plano Texas, knows that America’s strength depends on its ability to recruit and retain international talent. “In technology, roughly two of every three people on the technical side and the senior business side of things are usually immigrants,” he says. “The trend is very… Read More
Sustainability Chief Sees Immigration as a Way to Revitalize American Cities
On a recent trade mission to the Canary Islands, Todd Adams was reminded of how valuable a diverse workforce can be. As the chief of sustainability and innovation at Visibility Marketing, a Cleveland-based company that offers management solutions and strategic planning for companies in the clean energy sector, Adams had… Read More
Backward Immigration Policies Force America To “Compete With Our Own University Graduates,” Says CEO
Ramiro Cavazos is a seventh-generation Texan, born to a family that originally moved to America from Spain in the late 1600s and settled in the Rio Grande Valley as ranchers and farmers. Cavezos takes great pride in his family’s heritage and their many contributions to Texas. But as the CEO… Read More
For One Young Woman, It Took Becoming a Crime Victim to Get a Green Card
Alina Luna had the grades and the drive to attend college right after high school, but she didn’t have a Social Security Number. As an undocumented immigrant who came to Atlanta from Mexico at the age of 12, she wasn’t allowed to apply for federal financial aid without it. Luna… Read More
H-1B Visa Cap Reached in Five Days for Fourth Consecutive Year
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7 that the H-1B cap for fiscal year 2017 was reached—meaning that in five business days, U.S. employers filed more petitions for an H-1B visa to hire a skilled foreign worker than the entire year’s allocation of visas available… Read More
Simply Soup Ltd. d/b/a NY Soup Exchange – BALCA
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA), the administrative body at the Department of Labor that reviews denials of PERM labor certifications, concluded that the Certifying Officer (CO) had the discretion, but not the obligation, to request missing documentation. BALCA failed to address arguments made by the Council and AILA in their amicus brief: that due process and fundamental fairness, as well as the PERM regulatory structure, require the CO to request supplemental documentation when the employer’s compliance with documentation requirements is evident from the record. Read More
Mantena v. Napolitano – Second Circuit
The Council, with AILA, filed an amicus brief arguing that a district court has jurisdiction to review procedures followed by USCIS to revoke an employment-based visa petition. Amici argue that INA § 242(a)(2)(B), which limits judicial review over certain discretionary decisions, does not preclude review over the question of whether USCIS was required to provide notice of the visa petition revocation proceedings to the beneficiary. This is particularly true where, as in this case, the beneficiary had utilized the “porting” provision of INA § 204(j) to change employers more than 2 ½ years earlier, but USCIS issued its notice of intent to revoke only to the former employer and revoked the petition when the former employer did not respond. Read More
Microsoft Corporation – BALCA
The Council and AILA filed an amicus brief in an en banc case pending before BALCA, an administrative body at the Department of Labor that reviews denials of PERM labor certifications. The case turned on the proper interpretation of a regulation which requires employers to notify certain laid-off U.S. employees about new job opportunities before the employers are permitted to hire foreign workers. The brief focused on the agency’s failure to provide fair warning before applying a new, more restrictive interpretation of the notification requirement. Read More
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