Shifts in Corporate Immigration Law

With a law degree from Cornell University, Rodney Malpert is a partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy. The Phoenix, Arizona-based firm employs more than 3,400 immigration professionals and has over 40 offices across the Americas and Asia Pacific. Rodney Malpert manages the San Francisco office of Fragomen, and has also taught corporate immigration law at Arizona State University Law School.

The business immigration market landscape is changing. The past few years have been marked by uncertainty around policy brought by significant political shifts in the US and across the globe.

The most significant challenge that US immigration lawyers faced the last few years was the complications posed by President Trump’s 2017 Buy American Hire American executive order. Known as BAHA, it sought to protect national economic interests and support higher employment rates among US workers by restricting immigration.

After four years of immigration restrictions under Trump, the Biden administration is enacting sweeping changes to the immigration system. Already, President Biden has signed several executive orders designed to roll back restrictive immigration rules. The changes will facilitate streamlined pathways to citizenship, and protect undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers.