So, how does one get involved in Immigration Law?

After graduation from The University of Texas School of Law, I was one of Senator Cornyn's first hires when he became Attorney General of Texas (before he became Senator). After three years representing the State as a litigator, it became time for me to follow my wife to the Bay Area for her Post Doc. On September 7, 2001, I interviewed with DOJ INS and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California . . . then, September 11th happened. The gentleman I interviewed with from the U.S. Attorney's Office was Robert Mueller . . . and he was immediately tasked with becoming the FBI chief. I accepted the job with DOJ INS on September 14th and have been an immigration attorney ever since: 6 years as a terror prosecutor and the past 12 in private practice.

 
You may have the largest H-2B law practice in the country; how did you get into the H-2B business?

Because of my experience with DHS ICE, I primarily marketed our practice as a verification compliance (Form I-9 and E-Verify) practice: I-9 audits and criminal-related immigration defense. Many of my first clients were in the landscaping maintenance/landscape installation industry. We protected our clients from losing large segments of their active workforces with supplemented temporary foreign workers. We've now expanded the practice to represent landscapers with DOL audits, new corporate formation, and permanent residency for their temporary workers. As many of you are aware, private equity is investing heavily in the landscape industry and due diligence is also in our practice.

How has the H-2B practice evolved over the recent past?

We've run up against a bunch of new challenges. First, the agency decided to artificially inflate the market wage for workers (wages are still higher than market wages in most markets); and now we're dealing with the new reality: we've lost an entire generation of craft workers. Kids coming out of high school today have been tracked to apply and attend college. We've closed vocational schools and no longer have kids interested in apprenticeships with craft artisans, like landscape managers, architects, and horticulturalists. My clients are telling me that kids would prefer work at local coffee shops, play video games or post to Instagram rather than learn a lifelong trade. It seems like this generation has decided certain jobs are below them . . . combine that with record un- and underemployment rates, and there are just not enough available workers across many industries-not just landscape maintenance. As a result, the visa category has been significantly over-subscribed; way too many employers for too few visas.

It appears that the Legislature understands that more visas show as allocated because it keeps giving discretionary authority to the Homeland Secretary to release the supplemental visas.
Do you know why more statutory visas haven't been legislated by them?

I don't. It doesn't make political sense to our clients. USCIS is issuing visas based upon a random lottery as the visas are allocated. It would seem to me that this is a relatively easy fix. This isn't an immigration issue; it's a labor issue. My clients would tell you: their H-2B workers are loyal, they're law abiding, they want to work as much as the clients will work them, AND they always, always return home because they want to come back year over year. Most H-2Bs have no interest in becoming a U.S. Citizen. They want to legally work in the United States and save up enough to spend the rest of their lives in their country of origin with their families. The workers are willing to sacrifice years away from their families to make enough money that they can eventually return and live comfortably for the rest of their lives. This is a program that works. We gotta fix it.

As seen in LASN magazine, July 2025.