Immigration lawyers have long suspected USCIS hasn't been close to accurate in issuing the allotted 65,000 H-1B visas under the annual cap. The American Immigration Lawyers Association and other organizations and individuals have pressed the agency for years for details on how USCIS determines that the cap has been reached. The answers have always been vague and only raised more questions.

So a hearty congratulations are to be offered to my friend immigration lawyer David Rubman in Chicago who has finally gotten answers that confirmed the worst. David filed a Freedom of Information Act request with USCIS and after months of waiting got a chart showing five years of figures that demonstrated that USCIS has shorted the employer community about 45,000 H-1Bs over the last five years. David shared his findings with me and my blog was the first place anywhere to report the findings (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2012/09/breaking-uscis-systematically-undercounting-h-1b-cap-usage.html).

How does this happen? USCIS determines when to stop accepting applications based on a formula that subtracts from the number of H-1B petitions received an amount it forecasts it will deny. If they are too conservative, they will forecast a denial rate that is higher than reality and stop collecting applications too early. USCIS could open up the application process again, but has chosen not to despite the fact that it has such a system in place for H-2B visas. If you're an employer who lost a key employee because the H-1B cap was reached, you should be angry. Let your member of Congress know.

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Immigration issues continue to pop up in this election season. Both Mitt Romney and President Obama were interviewed by Univision with immigration issues dominating the discussion. President Obama was pressed on why he did not bring forth an immigration reform proposal when the Democrats were in the majority in both houses of Congress. Romney was pressed on the numerous hard right immigration positions he took during the primaries. The President is doing much better with Latino voters and is leading in most polls by nearly 50 points, about the same amount as the President beat John McCain by in 2008.

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In firm news, I'm quoted this week in the New York Times in a story on the impact of DACA on employers and the need to be cautious about revealing information about a DACA application to your boss. The story can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/us/immigrant-deportation-deferrals-put-employers-in-a-bind.html.

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Readers are reminded that they are welcome to contact my law office if they would like to schedule a telephone or in person consultation with me or one of my colleagues. If you are interested, please call my office at 901-682-6455.

Regards,