What if the real story behind U.S. immigration law isn’t what’s making headlines—but who’s telling it?

In the first episode of Immigration Weekly, Rosanna Berardi introduces herself and her unique journey from daughter of an immigrant to immigration inspector to leading immigration attorney. With over 30 years in the field, she sets the stage for a podcast that promises to unpack the messy, outdated, and often misunderstood world of immigration law. It’s not about taking sides—it’s about understanding the system from someone who’s lived it from every angle.

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Transcript

Welcome to Immigration Weekly. Welcome to our first episode.

Why am I doing this and why now? Well, if you haven’t noticed, immigration is everywhere. No matter where you go, there’s a lot of armchair quarterbacks right now.

Everyone’s an expert, lots of stereotypes, a lot of hostility. Why now? Because it’s time to set the record straight.

U.S. immigration law is messy. It’s complex. It’s old. It’s outdated.

I’m going to tell you how it all works and fits together. A little bit about me.

I’m an immigration lawyer from Buffalo, New York. I sit at the U.S. Canadian border. I’m 20 minutes from Canada, dual citizen, and my career is a bit interesting.

See, I’m not one of those boring lawyers that just went to law school. Whatever. There’s a million of those.

When I went to law school, I also worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Those folks are now called Customs and Border Protection. At the INS, I was a co-op student, an immigration inspector.

I had a gun, a badge, handcuffs. That put me to law school right away. While I was in law school and graduating, I also worked for the government as a trial attorney in their New York City office.

I was a Rosanna Berardi, Assistant District Counsel for the INS. Went to court every day, 30 judges. It was wild.

I’m a Buffalo girl, came back to Buffalo, worked at the University of Buffalo as their immigration lawyer. Who cares about that? Well, did a lot of stuff with international students and faculty.

That was amazing until big law came knocking. Big law said, hey, we’re going to show you some money and we’re going to teach you business immigration law. Did that for six years.

I’m an entrepreneur, the daughter of an immigrant. My family, my dad and mom had their own hair salon for 50 years. The first woman to graduate from college on both sides of our family.

My dad immigrated to the United States when he was 14 years old as an orphan. Hard, hard stuff. Grew up in an immigrant family.

He met my mom. She sponsored him for his green card. I remember I was like six years old when he became a US citizen.

I’ve lived the immigrant experience and I’ve also lived the immigration inspector experience, the university experience, and now I have priority immigration law that I started in 2005 by myself, one client. Today, over 20 people, offices around the globe, helping thousands and thousands of people achieve their American dream. What does this mean for you?

This means that I know what I’m talking about. I’ve done this job from every degree and angle, and I can tell you there’s a lot of soundbites out there that are garbage. A lot of fake news, a lot of fake stereotypes.

Fun fact, the foundation of our entire podcast is going to be the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1997. Yes, that’s right, 1997.

Old, outdated, antiquated. 28 years ago, that’s when this person graduated from law school. It’s woefully out of date.

The law really hasn’t changed. What’s changed is the application of it. We’ve seen some administrations, sorry, Ichino is here, come in, gangs ablazing, others kind of ignoring the immigration law.

Executive orders up the wazoo, president sitting down at desk just signing, signing, signing. No, no bueno. I don’t care where you are politically.

Executive orders are bad in a democracy. Why do presidents use them? Because Congress won’t do anything, so they feel like they have to take it into their own hands.

I’m going to explain to you the immigration law, how it works, what it means. What’s the other side of some of these stories that you’re hearing? I’m going to put it all together, and you’re going to be the smartest person at your dinner table.

Stick with me every week, Rosanna Berardi. I’ve got lots of amazing client stories to share, and we’ll have some fun too. Thanks for joining.

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Connect with Rosanna Berardi on LinkedIn.