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Labor Department Probes Major Immigration Law Firm

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The Associated Press

Published: June 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest immigration law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants.

The unprecedented Labor Department inquiry centers on Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy - a New York firm at the forefront of a political effort to ease hiring of skilled foreign workers.

The Labor Department is auditing all pending applications for legal immigrant workers the firm has filed on behalf of its corporate clients.

Fragomen's prestigious client roster includes General Electric Co., IBM Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Bank of America Corp., according to company publications and trade journals. The firm also represents The Associated Press on immigration issues.

Advice To Clients At Issue

The inquiry focuses on the applications filed by the firm, but there was no indication that the inquiry involves any of Fragomen's clients.

The Labor Department said that Fragomen may have improperly advised clients to contact a Fragomen attorney before hiring "apparently qualified" U.S. workers. The agency said lawyers can advise employers on how to follow the law in hiring immigrants but cannot dissuade them from deciding a U.S. worker is qualified.

The audit focuses on what is known as the permanent foreign labor certification, or PERM, process. Companies normally use it to permanently hire legal immigrants who have worked for them on temporary visas. It essentially allows companies to sponsor workers for green cards, the first step to U.S. citizenship.

Before applying, companies must recruit and try to find a qualified U.S. worker for the job. If they do, they cannot hire the foreigner.

Fragomen said its lawyers have complied with the law and rejected the idea lawyers cannot give critical legal advice about the complicated process for permanently hiring legal immigrants.

"We do not tell our clients whom to hire or not to hire," the firm said in a statement, adding that it is negotiating with the Labor Department to end the audit.

It's unclear exactly how many of Fragomen's applications the Labor Department is auditing as a part of the inquiry that was announced in early June, but the number is easily in the thousands.

With more than 200 attorneys, Fragomen is the biggest player in an industry in which firms with several dozen immigration attorneys are considered large firms.

In 2004, the last year the Labor Department made such information about law firms public, Fragomen lawyers filed more than 3,600 labor certifications - more than twice as many as its largest competitor.

The firm's managing director has said Fragomen represents about half of the Fortune 100 companies. Last year, Fortune 100 companies submitted more than 5,300 applications. Jobs listed in applications pay an average of $80,000. The largest group of applicants were from India.

Firepower To Unions

The Labor Department audit is lending firepower to workers, unions and other groups, that for years have said U.S. workers are being replaced with cheaper immigrant labor.

"The reason an employer pays its lawyer $3,000 to $5,000 is because they need help in not finding qualified American workers," said Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group that believes immigrant hiring rules are too lax.

The audit has drawn objections from immigration lawyers, unnerving some who fear it may restrict when they can advise clients seeking to hire immigrant workers.

"The Department of Labor said this firm had engaged in something improper and then went on to describe something that no one in this field, employer or attorney, finds improper," said Crystal Williams, programs director for American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The Labor Department said Fragomen may have broken rules because some immigrant recruiting forms the law firm provides to corporate clients say: "After an interview, should any of the applicants appear to be qualified for the position, please contact a Fragomen attorney immediately to further discuss the candidate's background as it relates to the requirements stated for said position."

The department said it will decide whether pending applications submitted by Fragomen clients should be denied or subjected to more government oversight.

"The department takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that American workers have access to jobs they are qualified and willing to do and that their wages and working conditions are not adversely affected by the hiring of foreign workers," the Labor Department said in its news release.

Department officials refused interview requests. A spokesman said the agency does not comment on ongoing legal matters.

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