Lawyer Monthly Magazine - February 2020 Edition

Expert Insight Peter Antone, Law Offices of Antone, Casagrande & Adwers, P.C. 47 FEB 2020 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM historically, most immigrants have demonstrated high work ethic and in the long run have generated great economic activity and more employment opportunities for US workers. For example, many Fortune 500 companies are started by immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Additionally, many immigrants, documented and undocumented, are the backbone of the agriculture, construction, and food industries, and therefore are critical to the US economy. What is the importance of Immigration Law to corporations and how could they be impacted by this shift? Since American corporations have to compete on the global stage, they need foreign talent that may not always be easy to find in the US, as well as to train those individuals for work overseas. There is substantial evidence that foreign talent working in the US creates substantial US employment through innovation and growth. Limiting legal immigration will force corporate America to keep its talented foreigners overseas, boosting foreign innovation and expansion rather than our own. How would you advise corporations [and others] to prepare for the changes made in US immigration law? Immigration law has not been kind to corporate America, in the sense that it creates incentives for US entities and corporations to establish branches overseas and hire foreign talent overseas. Due to the pervasiveness of remote access technologies, many US entities employ foreign skilled labor overseas, depriving the US of tax base and consumer spending that would have occurred had the employees been located in the US. What is now the legal process surrounding immigration in the USA and how attitudes have shifted? While the legal processes surrounding immigration to the US have not changed fundamentally under the current administration, the attitude towards immigration has shifted, with a tendency to cast many immigrants in a negative light. Immigration has become needlessly complicated and expensive, discouraging businesses from bringing talent here that would otherwise help us to compete in the global economy. This may negatively impact the US work force and have adverse effects on the economy. LM Immigration law has not been kind to corporate America, in the sense that it creates incentives for US entities and corporations to establish branches overseas and hire foreign talent overseas.