Angelo Paparelli Published in the New York Law Journal
"No More Waiting on Legal Immigration"

An article co-authored by Immigration partner Angelo Paparelli was published in the February 22 edition of the New York Law Journal. In the article, the authors discuss President Obama’s American Jobs Act, and offer their own suggestions for jumpstarting the United States’ economy by reforming the administrative system behind immigration.

The authors laud Obama’s efforts to promote travel and tourism to the U.S., but feel that more can be done. “While the fruits of the President's laudable efforts are yet to be enjoyed, his encouragement to foreigners—in essence, that they heed George W. Bush's post-9/11 suggestion to ‘go shopping’ here—will not likely succeed unless existing immigration, visa and entry barriers are eliminated or reduced,” they comment. “Under current law and regulations, notwithstanding the new executive order, tourists and business visitors still face a host of legal obstacles before they can appear with dollars or plastic in hand at the nearest Bloomingdale's or Walmart.” The authors enumerate various additional tourist-friendly measures that could be taken, and also go on to suggest further immigration reforms that could create American jobs by attracting highly skilled foreign workers.

Of their suggestions, the authors emphasize, “None of these executive orders would reduce existing safeguards that require in-depth screening of foreign citizens on national-security grounds and for prior criminal history. None of these directives requires a single vote or committee hearing in Congress. If the president truly means what he says (if ‘an increasingly dysfunctional Congress…won't act, I will.’), the time is now for the White House to introduce economy-stimulating legal immigration changes.”