Why ImmPloyment Law?

Immigration Law is a common course in American law schools, but its coverage is broad and introductory. These courses touch on the employment of lawful and unlawful immigrants, but spend more time on refugees, asylum, and the deportation process. In the fall 2012 semester, I developed a new course at the University of Illinois, “Immigration, Employment and Public Policy.” The course explores statutes, administrative regulations, court decisions, as well as business, demographic, and political trends that bear on the topic of employing immigrants in the U.S. In a book I am writing for this course (Immigration, Employment and Public Policy [unpublished]), we study how U.S. immigration and employment laws apply to these sub-populations:

▪ Birthright  Citizens (268.5 million);

▪ LPR— 12.4 million Lawful Permanent Residents [EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EB-4, EB-5];

▪ Temporary Work Visas— 1.7 million aliens (H-1B, H-1C, H-2A, H-2B, O, P,R, P, E-1, E-2, E-3, TN);

▪ 11.2 million unlawful aliens (2010 est. by Pew Research Center) [people overstay visas, and cross borders unlawfully].

Those mysterious letters and numbers are work-related visas administered by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).

By now, you have figured out that “ImmPloyment Law” is my shorthand way of describing immigration in the context of employment law. This blog is an extension of my course and book. I welcome your comments, stories, news, advice, and input.