The American Lawyer Daily has an interesting piece illustrating how immigration law firms push for more immigration simply as a means of revenue, without any concern for the impact on American society. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The article begins:
In recent years, Fragomen grew precipitously, adding offices overseas and boasting double-digit revenue jumps. In 2007, revenue was up a whopping 38 percent, to $247 million.
But as businesses slowed their overseas hiring last year, Fragomen experienced “a startling fifty percent drop in profits per equity partner, from $1.9 million to $916,000.” It also didn’t help that the Department of Labor was investigating the firm’s handling of visa standards; it appeared that the firm was encouraging businesses to circumvent the requirement that they first look for an American worker before going overseas. The investigation has since been dropped with the DoL agreeing that the rules were just too difficult to follow.
The article continues:
The firm represents such blue chippers as The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., General Electric Company, International Business Machines Corporation, and Cisco Systems, Inc. on all matter of immigration issues, from processing H-1B work visas—which provide temporary residence to certain highly skilled foreign workers—to filing visa extensions.
Of course, the Center for Immigration Studies has repeatedly illustrated that H-1B visas certainly don’t go to the “highly-skilled.” See also, this CIS report.
But this doesn’t matter to law firms pushing more and more immigration. The social impact of increased immigration is not on their radar; it’s all about their own job security. Of course, all businesses are rightfully concerned about their bottom line, but when they petition Congress for more immigration as a way of increasing their own business, who speaks up for the American worker? Who addresses the various impacts of more immigration? And does anyone ask whether our country actually needs more immigration?
The fact is, reduced immigration means less work for immigration lawyers. It’s no surprise that they are some of the loudest opponents of a rational immigration system.
When it comes to the open border agenda, the American Immigration Lawyers Association admits their livelihood depends on it!