Dear Readers:

Immigration lawyers are working diligently this week to prepare their clients' H-1B cases for the year. We expect that the entire allotment of H-1B visas for the 2009 fiscal year will be used up this week despite the fact that the US is most certainly in a recession. Nearly 80 years ago, the US was in a much deeper economic downturn - the Great Depression. At that time, the American Congress passed legislation that was arguably one of the greatest economic blunders of the 20th Century - the Smoot-Hawley tariff. Imports were taxed at a rate of 60%. President Hoover signed the bill and in doing so kept a promise to farmers who lobbied for protection from foreign producers. The result - a contraction of international trade by 14% and a 60% drop in US exports. Unemployment rose from 7.8% when the tariff passed to 25.1% within three years.  

I mention Smoot-Hawley because there is always a tendency to impose trade barriers when interest groups have enough influence to affect policymakers. And while imposing those barriers may be politically expedient, the consequences for the broader economy can be disastrous.  

Trade barriers do not just include tariffs on goods. They include restrictions on importing skilled labor. And the US is stifling growth in our economy at precisely the time we need stimulation the most. We have a cap on H-1B and H-2B temporary worker visas and on employment-based green cards that were set nearly 20 years ago for a much smaller US economy. The H-2B guestworker program has shrunken in size as a key provision affecting the counting of those visas has been left to expire. These provisions have the effect of causing some companies to slow their growth plans and others to move operations overseas. In any case, no credible economist believes a cap on highly skilled workers is good for the US economy. It's time to uncap visas for workers in categories deemed to be important to the US economy, particularly in the STEM fields - the sciences, technology, engineering and math.  

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This past week the Department of Homeland Security released a proposed rule designed to address the objections of Judge Charles Breyer who issued an order blocking DHS from releasing a rule on "no-match" letters from the Social Security Administration. The proposed rule makes essentially no changes to the rule released in September, but it does seek to explain to the judge that the rule was thought out by DHS before it was issued. DHS also claims to have conducted a thorough analysis of the costs of the rule and that companies will not pay an unduly large amount to comply. Whether this will satisfy the judge is very much in doubt, but DHS may simply be preparing to try and set itself up for arguing the case in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I've included a summary of the proposed rule and a detailed question and answer document outlining the no-match rule. 

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In firm news, this month I was fortunate enough to be the subject of two separate magazine articles. Both cover my work over the years building my firm's web site and our blogs. The ABA Journal, the magazine of the 600,000 member American Bar Association, and Law Practice, the magazine of the ABA 's Law Practice Management Section are the two publications. It was fitting that these two issues should be appearing this month since I was a speaker at the ABA Techshow in Chicago last week.  

Karen Weinstock, the attorney in charge of SSB's Atlanta office, has just had a major book published by ILW on H-1B visa processing. I'll have more news to report on this exciting news in the near future. But an early congratulations to Karen! 

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Finally, as always, if you are interested in becoming a Siskind Susser Bland client, please feel welcome to email me at gsiskind@visalaw.com or contact us at 800-748-3819 to arrange for a telephone or in person consultation with one of our lawyers.

Regards, 

Greg Siskind