Should your lawyer have more empathy than brains?

My son recently joined medical school, and was given his first "patient" to diagnose. The students are graded not only on the correct medical diagnosis, but also on bed side manners. His "patient" (these are actually actors that med schools hire) presented herself with chest pain. After this experience my son asked me, whether if I was having chest pain, I wanted the doctor to say "everything will be alright" even though the doctor knows I may not. ie do I want a doctor to be sympathetic or do I want to hear the truth?

My answer to my son was that even though I don't need the hand holding, because I am a very strong person, I'm sure most people do. ie, Hold their hand and break the bed news as gently as you can, but don't hide the news.

Which is what a lot of unscrupulous lawyers do not do. I know many lawyers will promise clients the moon. Since I practice immigration law, I will keep my examples to immigration issues only.

When a client goes to a lawyer, a lot of lawyers lie---- no surprises here. "yes we can get that done", "yes, we have done thousands of these." These lawyers are very friendly, have the greatest bed side manners. Yet when they get the denials, they sound very sincere when they say, "i don't know why CIS denied your case." Any good lawyer knows what case is going to be approved and what case is going to be denied. Yet they do not refuse to take the case knowing they will get money to work for it.

Also just because a case can be filed, does not mean it should be filed. For instance, you can file a labor certification (PERM) for almost anyone. But if the next step, ie the I-140 does not go through, the PERM is useless. Same is true for certain family filings. Yet unscrupulous lawyers take the case, and the money to file the case.

Same is true for doctors. Both can be equally sweet and equally deceptive.

Yet clients, (and patients) choose doctors and lawyers by asking their friends, and by their professional's bed side manner rather than objectively by their education and wisdom. If you want someone to hold your hands and cry with you, get a friend. If you want your doctor and lawyer to represent your interest, choose one who went to a good school, does not have any disciplinary violations, and is sincere in his efforts. Generally foreign doctors and lawyers are less qualified simply because its easy to get into law schools and med schools in most countries. In India for instance the top students are engineers. Lawyers and most people in Humanities are at the bottom of the IQ heap.

In the end you are a consumer, and you have to do your due diligence or be duped.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The American Dream

Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act better known for its acronym, the dream Act, is again going to be debated as early as next week. The Democrats are going to append it to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill. The Dream Act is aimed at legalizing those children bought over illegally by their parents, have graduated high school and plan to attend at least a two year college or join the military. We educate these children, they are here illegally through no fault of their own, they studied, graduated high school, and in many instances college, and yet cannot work here legally. I know several Masters Degree holders who are illegal. They work illegally as clerks in convenient stores, no where realizing their potential. You would think that their plight will have non partisan support in the Congress. Yet this bill has not passed since 2001.

We pay for their education, yet we don't employ them, so that they can pay taxes and be productive members of society. What's tragic is that even though they fall in love and marry US Citizens, they still cannot get residency, because they "entered illegally."

I really hope that the Senate and Congress will come together on this issue. But with the current Republican strategy of "just say no" and with certain members introducing such terms as anchor babies, I doubt anything will get passed. Another time their dreams will be shattered.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

One Nation, Under God

Are we becoming more and more intolerant or was the fire of religious intolerance always burning? The pilgrims, the very first immigrants to this nation came to seek religious freedom. I cant help but wonder what they would do if the Native Americans burned their bibles, did not allow them to build churches or tried to kill their horse drivers. Most immigrant come to America for this freedom, religious, social, economic.

Yet, when we immigrated to Texas, and enrolled my kids at River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, we met with increasing religious intolerance. We were brown, and Hindu, wrong color, wrong religion. They had bible as a class. I was perfectly happy with that, since a knowledge of bible is essential to the understanding of the Western Culture. But the bible teacher used it to discriminate against my children. They were asked to expound on a passage that said that people who worshiped idols are like dogs. Incidentally that bible teacher always dressed in real tight and real low cut clothes.

My children were treated like subhumans. Other children would not play with them, and pushed them in playgrounds, with the encouragement of teachers. The teachers would mark them down for little things. We were told not to expect much from our children. We were told to see a psychiatrist at the med center, a professional from Houston Baptist University, who said my son had low IQ. I doubt his own IQ was above 100. To prove to myself that my children were smart, I made them sit the Mensa exams and they became members of Mensa at second grade. They subsequently made it to Duke and Yale, while the average River Oaks Baptist kids graduate from those southern religious colleges ranked as lowest in education by US News and World Report.

Religion is a business which thrives on putting down and converting other religions. By nature we humans are sectarians. We are divided into color, gender, etc which are hard to change. But religion is not immutable. And religion fosters hatred for other religions. At River Oaks Baptist school, the Baptist hated even the Catholics. I guess there are layers of hatred, with Muslim being the lowest on the totem pole. Religion propagates blind acceptance without questioning that fuels this intense hate.

And to those kindly souls who told our kids that they felt "sorry" that my kids would not go to Heaven, I say, my kids are going to that other H--- Harvard.


For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

To kill a Mockingbird---- Arizona Style

Arizona, (or at least the Maricopa County) wants to do away with the US Constitution altogether. The feds have sued the county because they engaged in willful discrimination, illegal searches and seizures and English only policy in their jails. The feds asked for documents 15 months ago, and Maricopa county has not complied.

Obviously Maricopa is hiding something. I am willing to bet that many of those Hispanics or brown people (and I'm sure they are legal or else Sheriff Arpaio would have either killed or have them deported already) is being detained for no legal reasons whatsoever. If the Sheriff is a confirmed racist, the jury will not be any different.

Meanwhile the Pew Research Center released a study saying that most illegals have left Arizona and the number coming into the US has declined.


Arizona does not want to follow the principles of the US Constitution. Yet it wants to be a part of the US? Why get the benefits of the federal dollars, if you cannot maintain the tolerance that is the hallmark of the US. And even John McCain, who with Senator Kennedy had once introduced the best comprehensive immigration bill in the Country ever, is now anti immigrant. He even said that most accidents are caused by illegal immigrants! What a Republican can do for votes.

Wonder if what Sheriff Arpaio's forefathers would do if the Native Americans tried to deport them.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Prevailing Wage and H-1B

The Department of Labor (DOL) just penalized a Company in Atlanta (Smartsoft International Inc) one million dollars for not paying 135 of its H-1B employees the prevailing wage. In this blog I am NOT defending Smartsoft. If they promised the DOL that they would pay a certain amount to their employees, they should do it. And many Indian run companies operate as they do in India, abusing employees. They forget that employees here have recourse that they would not in India.

However this blog is about fairness where prevailing wage is concerned on the part of the DOL. They just came out with a new prevailing wage system, where most wages are higher than the previous prevailing wage. We are in the midst of a recession, the rate of employment now is higher than it has been in at least a decade. Soon deflation is going to be the reality in the USA, but not in the world of the DOL's Prevailing Wage. Thus if Smartsoft was paying its H-1B workers the same as their other US Citizen workers,(and I don't know if they were or not) would that be a crime? After all isn't Prevailing Wage the Wage that is "prevalent" at a particular place? And why would an employer pay more when there are 50 people who will do the same job for less?

I think the US has realized that they have a cash cow in employment based immigration. H-1B and L-1 fees for certain Companies (mainly Indian Computer based companies) were raised to pay for US border security. Companies don't have compelling stories, and the democrats don't like them. But these small companies will simply outsource the jobs to India. And can the US afford a retaliatory price increase if the Indian Government wishes to implement that to secure its borders as well?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Chop Shops and Job Shops the four letter H-1B words

The Senate passed a $600 million border security bill last Thursday, and tucked inside that bill was a provision that would raise the H-1B filing fees. For companies which employs more than 50% of its employees on H-1B, the filing fees for each application would be $4820/- (currently it is $2320/). The bill is now being debated in the House and if passed, will head to President for signature.

This would impact big Indian IT companies like Infosys, but not the US companies like Microsoft or Google. This is of course discriminatory. Borrowing a word that has been used by the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) for Indian IT firms, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Infosys a "chop Shop." The CIS seems convinced that all Indian IT firms are filing "false petitions." The Government of India has protested this. The US needs India in the war against Al Qaeda and to keep China in check. Can it afford a bad relationship with any of the BRIC nations?


The President and his party in their socialist type agenda want to "preserve" US jobs. Getting rid of the free market economy in this deep recession will only hurt the US economy more. Infosys and other companies are already paying $2320/- per H-1B beneficiary. $1500/- of that is supposed to educate the US public. I have yet to see an education program funded by that money. The Companies will simply cease to do business in the US. And yes, today the US market is the biggest. But Asia and the BRIC countries are coming up , and together with Europe and Canada, will have more clout than the US.

The history of Immigration Law is ripe with untold discrimination against "colored people". It is time to end this discrimination. However I cannot forget that Nancy Polosi had once said that if she gave amnesty to the illegal immigrants, she would not make them pay. She would raise the fee on H-1B, because these "legal"employers had the money to pay, which the illegal immigrants did not. So my hopes for the House not passing this bill is slim indeed.

The new N word for Indian Companies have indeed become "job shop" or "chop shop" and this time its our Government who is using these words.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Leaked CIS Memo

On Sunday, July 29, a memo written by 4 chief personnel (including Mr. Neufeld of the now infamous January 8 H-1B memo) wrote a proposal to Director Mayorkas about strategies that the CIS can provide to individuals, to " promote family unity, foster economic growth ....... and reduce the threat of removal of certain individuals." Of course the Republicans immediately decried the memo as providing "backdoor amnesty." However, as the Republicans fail to realize, these are remedies that will make America economically stronger, and promises no one the Permanent Residency.

Amongst the business immigration proposals, is extending the 10 day grace period usually given at the end of a visa before a foreign national has to return to her home country to 45-90 days. In this economy many H-1Bs have lost their jobs. They have homes, their children have schools, etc. Clearly 10 days is not enough to pack up and leave a place that someone called home for years.

The agency might also grant work permits to H-4 non immigrant spouses of H-1B workers. H-1Bs are given to Specialized Professionals. The visa is initially given for 3 yrs and a total of 6 yrs. The spouses cannot work. Human nature demands that people be productive. I have seen marriages break up because spouses cannot work. Letting someone stay in the country for 6 years and beyond, and not granting them the right to work is a violation of a fundamental right.


The third proposal is to grant "dual intent" ie intent to have Permanent Residency to F (students) O (Outstanding category) TN (Nafta treaty visas), P (athletes and Performers) and E (Treaty trader) visa holders. This dual intent is available for H and L visa holders, but not for the above mentioned professionals. However it is in the US National interest to grant Permanent Residency to retain these professionals.

All of these above proposals are for legal non immigrants doing jobs which the majority of Republican and Tea Party supporters cannot do; jobs that require education, training and a brain. However, since this memo was leaked to the media, and there is tremendous Republican backlash, I doubt that any of these proposals will come to fruition.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee