May 1, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Visa Exit System Could Prove to be Vital for National Security and Visa Control

Immigration reform is not just about Mexicans. It encompasses those from other countries as well.

It’s no secret that there are other immigrants living in the U.S., and some of them are here even after their B2 tourism visa expires. Does anyone recall the latest story about a Moroccan immigrant plotting to bomb the Capitol? The 29-year-old man was living in Virginia, where he had been since 1999, and where he supposedly devised a plan to blow up the White House.

For those of you wondering how this could possibly happen, the bad news is the U.S. does not have any kind of a reliable system that confirms visitors here on visas have left the country. The very thought of a mass of illegal immigrants, and possibly terrorists, still living in the U.S. once their visas have expired, makes one tense.

And to be honest, it makes many Americans very uneasy in the still bitter wake of 9/11. We all know that those with less than honest intentions have been known to take advantage of serious weaknesses in the immigration system. Unless something is done about issues like this one, history may repeat itself in yet another devastating way.

Is it time for a visa exit system? Some would argue it is. Some would argue there is no money to implement one. Both of those arguments are right, which makes this issue yet another conundrum involving the reality of what needs to be done, mixed with the reality that there are no funds (or political will) to make it happen. There is talk of biometric scanners or mandatory follow-up inspections. Who would conduct those? Most people are losing their jobs and few are hiring because of the economy, and that includes the government.

Homeland Security is making noises that they are working on an exit system, but funding is an issue and it is nowhere near being ready to deploy. This is a bit like a car sitting in mud and gravel, spinning its tires to get out and getting nowhere. A tow truck is needed to provide some oomph to move it. In this case, the government needs money to move the issue forward. Obviously it isn’t going anywhere, given the state of their finances. And so, the issue dangles, or does it?

Homeland Security says they have, in lieu of an exit system, created a biographic system that tracks visa holders through multiple databases, providing immigration officials with a picture of where people are. Sounds nice, but we all know that a data system is only as good as the input and those who run it. This kind of a system does not work the same as a biometric one, but Homeland Security says it gives them some kind of control. One wonders if they had enough money to develop the biographic system, why didn’t they sink those funds into a biometric system instead?

Standing back and taking a look at the whole picture, one is struck by the mayhem and mismanagement going on all over the world. We did not used to live in fear of airplanes hitting buildings, of people packing body bombs to take out buildings and kill people. We had a fairly normal life, where peace and tranquility were the norm, not the exception. What happened? Somewhere along the line religion and politics got mixed together and a flash point was born; a reason to kill.

Will immigration reform deal with the way the world is now? Will immigration reform take care of border security issues when drug cartels want nothing more than revenge and money? Will immigration reform turn our nation into a bunker? Will immigration reform affect our constitutional rights? Food for thought. The 21^st century isn’t shaping up to be what we’d all hoped it might be.

Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

April 30, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

An Agricultural Uprising Might Result in Immigration Reform

One wonders just what will get immigration reform done; it might take an agricultural uprising.

Last year was dismal for farmers thanks to a significant shortage of workers. This year doesn’t look to be much better, which is prompting many U.S. farmers to check out the federal foreign guest worker program. Ironically, this labor shortage is quite a concern for Washington farmers. So much so, that Washington’s agriculture director has been heard to say an uprising, like the civil rights agitation in the 60s, would likely get immigration reform on track and in place.

Like many others involved in agriculture in the U.S., the belief is that comprehensive immigration reform would solve the labor shortage in their sector. However, like others, the industry seems to realize that reform is more smoke and mirrors than genuine substance. Without a major upheaval, or major reform, agriculture goes into decline, and the whole nation, not to mention other countries that import U.S. goods, start to have food shortages and price increases. Immigration reform is not just about the U.S. It impacts the world in other ways.

Farm interests are ramping up to insist that reform needs to include some type of guest worker program that will let non-residents come to the U.S. legally and work in agriculture. The truth behind this story is that without itinerant workers to perform seasonal work, it does not get done. Americans, despite saying they need jobs, will not work in the fields for the current wages. Who else will do the work? Non-residents, and yet there is resistance to this type of solution.

Frankly, immigration reform has become a war of words, a heap of hopes and a dismal pile of broken promises and dreams. Political gurus are indicating it is highly unlikely any kind of reform will be attempted in this election. What is even more disappointing is that these same government watchers don’t see any movement in 2013 either. So where will that leave the nation? Who knows, other than in the same boat it is in right now?

Part of the prevailing problem with a worker shortage in the agricultural sector is that people do not understand that without workers, the whole industry founders. The other side of that issue is people focus on wanting secure borders, no more illegal aliens and for the illegal trafficking in drugs and guns to stop. It’s rather short-sighted to only focus on one part of the immigration problem, say border security, when the spin offs are far greater than just securing the border.

Overall, the only solution is the political will to just get immigration reform done. That is obviously lacking and in the meantime, a sluggish economy is also impeding the implementation of government programs. Two strikes and people are looking for the third, in the skeptical manner of those who have been there, done that and don’t believe or trust a thing the government says. This hardly bodes well for immigration reform being achieved.

The revolving door of immigration reform will continue to flounder until someone, somehow figures a way to pull the economy out of the toilet. Given what is going on right now, it seems unlikely these issues will be addressed anytime soon.

Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami, Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

April 16, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Arizona Gov. Rejects NY Senator’s Invitation to Explain Immigration Law

Before the Supreme Court takes up Arizona’s controversial immigration law in April, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is planning a subcommittee hearing on the issue.

The high court is scheduled to begin hearing the case on April 25. One day earlier, Schumer will have the state bill’s original author at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship. Schumer is the chairman of that committee.

Schumer asked Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to come before the subcommittee hearing on immigration to speak about the law. She will already be in Washington, D.C., to testify before the Supreme Court. She declined his invitation, calling it a publicity stunt.

Former Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce will testify before Schumer’s subcommittee despite losing a recall election last year brought about partly because of the outrage over the bill, according to the Huffington Post.

Schumer wrote a letter to Gov. Brewer asking for her participation in a dialogue about the border.

“As you frequently ask the President to visit the southern border to discuss border security, we expect that you will be eager to engage in a productive dialogue with the Congressional Committee responsible for acting upon any border security recommendations you provide,” Schumer wrote, according to the Arizona Republic.

Arizona’s SB 1070, the anti-illegal immigration law that has sparked controversy across the country, makes it a misdemeanor for an alien to be in the state without proper documents. A federal court judge in Arizona struck down the portion of the law that requires law enforcement to investigate the immigration status of people at traffic stops and make routine arrests. The Supreme Court will make a decision this year in part because other states are passing similar immigration laws.

Federal efforts have had a profound affect on border security over the past two years since the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act pushed more than $600 million to support law enforcement. Border patrol numbers are up and illegal crossings are down significantly. Seizures of guns, cash and drugs are all up as well, according to the Post.
Schumer said he would like Brewer to speak to his subcommittee to explain if she thinks the bill is still necessary since federal efforts have been so successful. He said he would like her to share whether she thinks the new law will always be necessary.
For her part, Brewer has explained the law on countless television programs, radio broadcasts and interviews with media of a variety of political leanings.
With the spotlight on illegal immigration, it has been difficult for those who want progress on reforming the legal immigration laws to be heard. Efforts to reform the visa program are moving through Congress, but with significantly less press attention than Arizona’s law.

Annie Banerjee is an immigration lawyer in Houston, Texas, who helps legal immigrants come to this country to seek permanent citizenship or for travel or work.

Contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their web site at http://www.visatous.com.

April 15, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Advocates Push for Poland to Make VWP List

A steady drumbeat of voices for Poland’s inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program is becoming deafening as Congress considers visa reform legislation.

Nowy Dziennik, a Polish-language newspaper published in New York launched a new online campaign to raise awareness at dropvisasforpoland.org.

David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee wrote an opinion piece for the Chicago Tribune in October refreshing American memories of all the times Poland has stood by the United States during wartime and has been a pivotal ally.

“Ask any Pole,” Harris wrote. “I have on many occasions and always received the same answer: The issue is seen as a slap in the face to Poland and its traditional friendship with the U.S.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, mentioned Poland’s eligibility for the VWP as he sponsored legislation called the Enhanced Security and Reform Act to update the program.

“Since the end of the Cold War, Poland has become one of the United States’ strongest allies, and it makes sense that we should change the law governing visa waivers to reflect the world we live in today,” Pascall said in a press release.

The Visa Waiver Program was started in 1986 as a way to cut down on administrative costs and to promote goodwill between the United States and individual countries. Citizens of the 36 countries on the list are able to travel to the United States for tourism or business without a visa for up to 90 days. To get on the VWP and to remain on it, countries must have advanced passport security technology and a low non-immigrant refusal rate.

Poland misses out on the VWP because its refusal rate is too high, which means the consular officers there believed that many of the visa applicants would overstay their 90-day trip. Some advocates of reform have suggested using actual overstay numbers instead of refusal rates to determine eligibility.

Citizens of countries that must go through the visa process to visit the United States on vacation or business must wait longer, fill out more forms, pay more fees and sit through interviews with their consulate. Advocates of keeping the VWP list short say the consular interviews and forms help keep the United States safe. All moves to open the borders for tourists or businesspeople no matter where they are from is going to be met with caution from the Department of Homeland Security.

Poland is on the short list of “road map” countries being considered for inclusion in the VWP.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.

March 17, 2012 in Immigration, Legal by jferris

Politicians Have Split Personalities Over Immigration Reform

It is no secret that politicians speak out of both sides of their mouths. It’s a great pity they can’t be relied upon when it comes to immigration reform.

No matter who you listen to, the issues are the same nationwide, but they are talked about differently, phrased differently and right to the very last vote, uniformly ignored later. Right now, the issue is not so much the economy, immigration reform, education, or health care, it is getting re-elected. In other words, don’t count on a hill of beans getting done any time soon. Frankly, don’t count on anything getting done, even after the election. Words of promise no longer seem to carry the import they once used to carry. Gone are the days when a man’s word was gold. Now a politician’s word is smoke and mirrors.

What’s going on lately with regard to immigration reform? It is hard to tell reading the news, but nonetheless, many of the candidates are going full tilt ahead to garner the Latino vote. Take Mitt Romney’s perhaps tongue-in-cheek comment about what he could do to encourage them to vote Republican. If feels if he can swing that vote, he would pretty much be the frontrunner. However, what he does, should he get there, will be the acid test.

It’s not rocket science to figure out the Latino vote is close to 9 percent of the whole electorate, and rising. Without doing the math, you just know it’s a large figure, which means their vote packs a punch. It got Obama to the White House, and it can take him out or put him back in. Of course, Obama is vying for the Latinos again as well, albeit from a somewhat leveraged position. However, he hasn’t made good on his immigration reform promises, so you can bet this election will hold some surprises, many of which may not be good.

The overall irony is that candidates, even those espousing a hard line on immigration, are trying to win favor with the Hispanic vote. Just how do you do that? Ask someone to vote for you when you voted to have them booted out of the country, put up killer border security and broke up families to deport someone? If anyone has an answer to that, it would be interesting to hear it. And the ultimate affront to Hispanic voters?

They have to listen to half baked promises from loose cannons that want them gone from the U.S. and decide whether or not to trust them. That would be a tough decision to make. Oddly, most of the politicos chasing the Latin voters don’t see that their real positions when they get to the Hill are hurting their chances of securing the very votes they need. It’s that, or they are so myopic they are missing the point, in which case, no one should vote for them.

For now, Spanish speaking voters get to listen to political ads in Spanish, with the politician even speaking Spanish to make a point. And the point is? The point is they couldn’t be bothered to make any kind of concession like that in the past, not until they wanted to run for election and land the Latin vote. The electorate is not stupid, but one wonders about politicians at times.

Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

March 16, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Immigration Reform Can Help the Economy Recover

Some issues need to be black and white. The economy is one of those, with a few minor detours.

Every major country in the world needs to rein in their economy. The U.S. is no different. The health of that economy is typically built on the populace working and paying taxes. You get the idea. Those with top notch skills make the most, and thus pay higher taxes, leading to the conclusion that the nation needs more highly skilled people like engineers and applied technologists. Sadly, there are not as many as there could be, for two reasons.

American students are not heading into those areas, which will prompt a serious shortage of American talent to fill those positions. If you can’t fill the positions at home, you fill them from outside the country, despite the complaints that would pour in. This is quite similar to the argument that aliens are taking American jobs in the agricultural sector, when in reality Americans don’t want those jobs and won’t work them. This is why, in part, immigration is such a contentious issue, and has been for so many years.

Simply put, if American students are not applying for engineering and technology jobs in the numbers needed for the future, employers will look elsewhere. What is the solution to this conundrum? The obvious one is to encourage American students to study in the fields that will drive our nation’s future. That means more resources to hawk the necessity of such a career and how it will ultimately affect our future. If the country needs more engineering and technology graduates, they need to take action. In the meantime, to deal with the issue now, immigration reform needs to become a reality.

While most Americans tend to regard the immigration reform issue as one of securing the border and keeping out illegal immigrants, the issue has far greater ramifications than one could possibly imagine. The lack of U.S. engineers and technologists is just one of them. Again, if we can’t find what we need at home, employers turn to cross border recruitment. But also consider this, America is a nation of immigrants, some of them here illegally, that could fill engineering and technology positions if they were legal. You see the issue?

Right now, major engineering and technology companies virtually have their hands tied when it comes to hiring outside of the U.S. They find a good candidate, but getting the permission to hire them is a dog and pony show with immigration issues. The irony is that our universities train some of the top people in these fields; talent that wants to stay in the U.S. and talent that is not American born. Thanks to the mess the immigration system is in, nine times out of ten, these individuals are driven out of the country instead. How does this make sense? It doesn’t, and more people are realizing this.

Immigration lawyers have known this for years, but no one listens. Employers have known this for years, but no one listens. Immigrants have known this for years, but no one listens. Now, there are some beginning to pay attention to the message. Business leaders and well placed political advocates are pointing out that our ability to compete in the global marketplace depends on our talent. If we, as a nation, are indeed serious about making changing to resolve the lousy economic situation, we need to provide the tools to succeed to those who are working to become our future, and that means doing something about the immigration system.

Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

March 8, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Entrepreneurship Summit Highlights Need for Legal Immigration Reform

Immigration officials launched a new program called Entrepreneurs in Residence in late February with an information summit at Moffett Field, California’s NASA Research Park.

The summit was a long-awaited breakthrough for critics of U.S. immigration law ¨C particularly as it pertains to visas for post-graduate professionals.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started the Entrepreneurs in Residence program last October to gather industry expertise from both the private and the public sector in an attempt to spur job growth through the employment based visa program.

“USCIS gained invaluable insights from prominent entrepreneurs and industry leaders on immigration issues critical to our nation’s economic prosperity,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas after the Feb. 22 summit.

More than 150 representatives of the business community, government agencies and academia attended the summit to help USCIS use immigration law reform as a tool to promote entrepreneurship and bolster American prosperity, according to a press release from USCIS.

“The introduction of expert views from the private and public sectors will help us ensure that our policies and processes fully realize the immigration laws’ potential to grow our economy and create American jobs,” Mayorkas said in the release.

The summit was organized to give some direction to the Entrepreneurs in Residence’s new tactical team. The tactical team is made up of USCIS employees and business experts working to create clear, consistent immigration pathways for foreign entrepreneurs. All of this is being done to align visa policy with current business realities, according to the release.

The team is designed to streamline USCIS policy across all of the non-immigrant visa categories that entrepreneurs use in business.

The slowdown of the U.S. economy since the financial and housing market crash of 2008 has inspired the USCIS to begin thinking of ways to affect economic growth through smart visa policy. This inspiration has happened, in part, because of the chorus of voices from the technology industry begging for reform.

USCIS announced the Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative during President Barak Obama’s Council of Jobs and Competitiveness in Pittsburgh in October of 2011.

At the February summit, Mayorkas recognized five entrepreneurs who are American immigrants as Outstanding Americans by Choice. Those five entrepreneurs, who are now naturalized citizens, are researcher and writer Vivek Wadhwa; Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital; Christopher Che, president and CEO of the Che International Group; Shervin Pishervar, managing partner at Menlo Ventures; and Ping Fu, president and CEO of Geomagic.

The Outstanding American by Choice is an honor given to naturalized citizens for achievements in professional achievement, civic participation and responsible citizenship.

Mayorkas also performed a naturalization ceremony, welcoming 20 Silicon Valley residents to become U.S. citizens.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.

March 7, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Visa Waiver Program Sees Push for Expansion

The Visa Waiver Program allows foreign nationals from certain countries to visit the United States for business or leisure for 90 days or less without going through the hassle of obtaining a travel visa.

There are a number of criteria a country must meet to participate in the program. At least one of the program’s requirements is being reviewed by Congress.

Here are some of the criteria participating countries must meet to be a part of the program.
• Must have a reciprocal program with the United States
• Must issue secure, machine-readable passports
• Must be on track to include biometric identifiers in passports
• Must report theft of blank passports to the U.S. Department of State
• Must have a low nonimmigrant refusal rate.

Refusal rates are used as a measure of the likelihood a foreign national would overstay his or her trip to the United States.

Critics argue that the overstay rates themselves would be a better measure of the propensity of a person on a business trip or vacation to stay beyond his or her allotted 90 days.

Refusal rates can be skewed if the same person is refused several times, for example. By comparison, nationals from a country with a high overstay rate likely need a visa from the State Department before visiting the United States.

There are bills before the U.S. House and Senate that would replace refusal rates with overstay rates among other tweaks to the program.

There are 36 countries in the Visa Waiver Program. About 40 million people visit the United States every year for business or vacation. Among those, almost half enter the United States from countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The State Department has been under some pressure during the down economy to loosen restrictions on business and leisure travel to the United States. Travel and tourism can be a big boost on a struggling economy.

But the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have a responsibility to keep people out of the country who pose a threat to law and order or national security. There also is political pressure to keep foreign nationals out of the country who intend to stay here illegally.

There also is a movement to expand the number of countries who participate in the Visa Waiver Program. Adding countries to the list would increase the number of visitors from those countries for both business and recreation. An expanded list might also be better for security.

The United States gets more information and more useful data about counterterrorism and criminal enforcement from member nations than it does from non-member nations.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled website at http://www.visatous.com.

February 29, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

Sometimes it Takes a Hit Close to Home to Make a Point about Immigration Reform

Not everyone is as emotional about immigration reform because they think it does not affect them. When it hits home it comes a different story, and they take a sudden interest.

This is an interesting situation and it serves to point out that those who do not think immigration and immigration reform is an issue sometimes get a rude awakening. It is no secret that the government has been seriously pursuing immigration enforcement in a big way, racking up large numbers of deportations.

This story involves a big hit to a national chain restaurant that employed hundreds of undocumented workers. As the result of a silent raid, one where Immigration and Customs Enforcement examines a company’s records, the national chain was found to have over 500 undocumented workers. The Denver-based company also had to lay off over half of their 900 workers in Minnesota and lost countless others in Virginia and Washington.

Needless to say, this move just about halted the company, and left it in the awkward situation of having virtually no one to run their chains. The managers that they did have left were scrambling to find replacements. This became a serious issue, as qualified workers are hard to find and to be honest, despite claims that undocumented workers are taking jobs away from Americans, the fact is few Americans want restaurant or agricultural work. Where it once only took ten interviews to find a qualified worker, managers reported interviewing up to 40 candidates to find one person to fill a position.

As a net result of losing all those workers in one swoop, the head of the restaurant chain suddenly became a proponent of overhauling the immigration system. He got the message and now had one for the government, and it is simple – fix this type of situation as something needs to be done about it. Come to think of it, if you look at what those who are for reform want, it’s the very same thing – just fix what is broken and let’s get on with our lives.

One of the suggestions to fix situations where Americans don’t want the jobs, but someone has to fill the positions is a temporary guest-worker program for the agricultural sector. However, that kind of a solution does not work when employers need qualified labor 365 days a year. In this particular case, the restaurant chain expects to have 165 outlets in operation in 2012. This is an operation that will ultimately have about 30,000 workers, half of which are Latinos.

Immigration is certainly messed up. Is someone going to fix it? Who knows?
Sally Odell – Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff, PA is an immigration lawyer in Miami with immigration law offices in Orlando and Miami Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

February 29, 2012 in Immigration, Legal, Legal Articles by jferris

New Study Shows Skilled Immigrants Boost U.S. Jobs

The American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New Economy recently commissioned a study looking at the relationship between immigration and the job market in the United States.

The groups did the study to help advise policymakers in hopes that immigration policy changes could spur economic growth, according to a press release from AEI.

The study found that the current immigration policy is not hurting but enhancing the job market. The agencies conducting the survey sought to use the data to advocate for specific policy changes that could boost U.S. job growth.

Researchers looked to find out if immigrants take jobs that would be filled by U.S. citizens, if they create jobs, or if there is no net effect. They also looked into what types of jobs were being taken or created by the immigrants.

The study outlined two broad schools of thought on how immigration impacts the labor market. The first idea says that immigrants and native-born Americans share the same skill sets and must compete for the same jobs. The second idea says that Americans and immigrants have different skills and complement each other in the resulting diversified work force.

Employers and policymakers both point to two groups as being critical to the U.S. economy – immigrants with advanced degrees and temporary work visa holders. Researchers looked at Census Bureau data and temporary worker applications to look at states individually to try and learn how likely an American citizen is to have a job in states with more immigrants. The study went on to look at the benefits these immigrants receive relative to their taxes.

Researchers came up with four significant findings. Immigrants with advanced degrees boost U.S. employment; temporary workers, skilled and unskilled, boost U.S. employment; no evidence shows immigrants hurt U.S. employment; and foreign-born workers pay more in U.S taxes than they use in benefits.

The data on immigrants with advanced degrees showed that workers who studied in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – at U.S. universities had a big positive impact on jobs here. For every 100 skilled workers with advanced degrees from U.S. schools, 262 jobs were created for American-born workers between 200 and 2007.

Foreign-born workers with advanced STEM degrees from schools around the world including the United States also had a positive impact on jobs with 86 jobs created for every 100 high-skilled immigrant working here.

The addition of 100 temporary workers also resulted in more jobs for native-born Americans, according to the study. H-1B workers created 183 jobs for every 100 immigrants and H-2B workers created a whopping 464 jobs for Americans.

The researchers used the data from the survey to make policy suggestions aimed at boosting the American economy.

The American Enterprise Institute suggests giving priority to immigration applicants with advanced degrees in STEM fields and increasing the number of green cards for high-skilled workers.

A qualified immigration attorney can help skilled workers and employers work with immigration services to get visas to work in the United States.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.