Inside USCIS: Headlines vs. Reality in Immigration Right Now

Originally aired September 29, 2026.

Transcript:
Rosanna Berardi: Hello, Douglas S. Pierce. Thank you for joining us today. How are you?

Douglas S. Pierce: I’m great. Thanks for having me, Rosanna.

Rosanna Berardi: Happy birthday. Thank you for spending it on the Berardi Immigration Law live stream, at least for a few minutes, so we appreciate that.

Douglas S. Pierce: Happy to do so. Happy to do so.

Rosanna Berardi: Oh, my God. So let’s talk about what the heck is going on.  like you, I’ve been doing this for a long time. Uh, it’s almost 30 years for me, and boy, I can’t keep half of this stuff straight. So let’s jump in. Let’s see what’s going on, help our viewers figure it all out.

Douglas S. Pierce: Okay. I’m ready to dive in. We got lots to talk about.

Rosanna Berardi: So Yeah, so I think,  you know, we keep seeing the narrowing of legal immigration, right? We see the president’s obsessed with the H-1B category. They’re making it harder for green card holders to come in. They’re making it harder across the board, and this is pretty consistent with their platform. Are you surprised by any of this, and especially given the fact that the midterms are not that far away?

Douglas S. Pierce: Uh, no, I’m not surprised. The only thing I’m surprised at is how hard this administration has gone after business admin- uh, i- immigration. You know, you would’ve thought given his background, given his- You know, given his interests in business to begin with, that that would be the, if there was any side of immigration that he was for, it would’ve been for that. But he’s made it pretty darn clear that, uh, he’s ready to go after businesses and, and, uh, make it harder for them to bring in lawful workers, uh, throughout the, throughout the, his administration here.

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah, it’s really odd because, you know, so much of the campaign and re- reelection was focused on, you know, deportation, right? Like, we kept hearing about this mass deportation order and we were gonna get two million people out and all this stuff. And,  that didn’t work out like they thought it would in-

Douglas S. Pierce: No, it didn’t It did not work.

Rosanna Berardi: Because of due process, right? Like, if people are here and they’re unlawful,  you can’t just put them on a plane and send them back. They’re entitled to a hearing. And in my opinion, because that was a colossal failure, I think they pivoted to legal immigration, which they never really talked about, you know, limiting. And, you know, given the, the business acumen of, of the president and the administration and, you know, his, his love for tech and business and growth and, you know, this is the golden era, like, all of that, to then come out and start hammering on legal immigration tells me that they’re grasping for straws here.

Douglas S. Pierce: Yeah. I think they kind of came to a business calculation that the easiest immigrant to deport is the one you don’t let in to begin with.

Rosanna Berardi: Yes. Yes. That’s, that is, truer words were never spoken. So, you know, they can still get the media headline of, you know, we’re curtailing immigration, we’ve left, you know, we’ve, we’ve admitted far less people than we did last year and all of that. So,  you know, the H-1B category, boy, I’ve spent my entire career with, you know, working with people. The H-1B category is for professionals holding a bachelor’s degree, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most  difficult from a compliance perspective. It requires the applicant and the sponsor, which is the employer, to do so many things already, right? Like, we have to show that the person’s being paid a prevailing wage, meaning they’re not being discriminated against. We have to show that there’s a notice up,  in the workplace showing that a foreign national’s being hired to put Americans on notice.  The filing fees are nuts. There’s so much going on with this H-1B, yet we see it getting hammered. What do you think of that?

Douglas S. Pierce: Well, I, I think it’s, like I s- like we’ve talked about, it’s part of that larger strategy of, of curtailing legal immigration. It’s trying to show that they’re fighting for the American worker,  trying to, uh, trying to make it so that wages for Americans are, doing this kind of work go up. I saw in the executive order that they issued on the H-1Bs, that they, they’re claiming that there’s, like, a $9 to $20,000 salary discrepancy between H-1Bs doing this work and, say, American citizens doing this work. As a father of a, of a STEM worker, my w- my daughter is a computer engineer, does vision for GM, you know, I, I get the need, the, the, the idea of making sure we’re supporting American workers doing this work first rather than bringing in people and suppressing wages and that sort of thing. And if the administration is right and there is that real wage gap between, you know, H-1Bs and, and US citizens doing that work, I get the, the intent and, you know, and you know how I’m always looking for, like a narrative aspect to go through the whole, all of the things that we’re gonna talk about, and my- Right narrative thing is kernel of wisdom. I think there is a kernel of wisdom in some of the stuff that the administration is doing, but there’s also a lot of dreck in what they’re doing.

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the intent, I don’t think you’d find many Americans to disagree with the intent of, you know, Americans should be paid,  fair wages and foreign nationals that come in shouldn’t be paid less. And, I think everyone could agree with that for the most part. And but what’s happened is even though we have to show prevailing wages, meaning that the wage in, you know, Buffalo, New York for a STEM engineer is $55,000, the prevailing wage doesn’t always reflect the market rate of labor. Right? So even though it might say $55,000, if you tried to hire somebody at that, you’d get nobody. ‘Cause the real wage, you know, the market wage is $80,000. So we’ve got this discrepancy. And unfortunately there’s been one or two big headlines over the last few decades about companies firing Americans and having them train their foreign national replacements. Right. You know, Disney was famous for that, like one out of a billion things they’ve done. Um Yeah. That one gets cited. So, so what, what happened was last year around this time, I remember I was out to dinner and my phone starts blowing up because there’s an executive order saying the new fee for H-1B holders is gonna be $100,000. We were like, “What? This is bananas.”  so lawyers did what lawyers do and they challenged it and brought it to court and, and a court said, “Okay. Well,  no, we can’t do this through an executive order, so we’re not gonna be collecting this fee right now.”  and then like a year later, just last week, the administration comes out with another H-1B executive order saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, whatever about this money, but now we’re gonna say to our counterparts, Department of Labor, Department of State, EEOC, we want you guys to look at cases that are filed to see if any companies have laid off Americans.”  Which is really interesting because, again, the intent is to protect the American worker,  but I, we have a significant H-1B practice and, you know, H-1B doesn’t outlaw layoffs, but we are super careful when there’s that situation because we know it, it’s ripe for a challenge.

Douglas S. Pierce: Right. And, and it’s always in immigration the appearance of impropriety in the sense of where the law might not, you know, be super clear on, okay, you can’t do this or can’t do that, but if it looks like company A is firing a bunch of Americans so that they can hire a bunch of aliens at a lower wage,  and then have some of those Americans train those foreigners to do the work, that’s gonna look really, really bad. And even if it is not prohibited by, by law, the, the kernel of what the wisdom 0 of this kernel is the idea of bringing in these other agencies, departments with their expertise and kind of looking at these petitions and these, you know, hiring practices more holistically, not a truly bad idea. I think, you know done right and done with the right intent and with the right, you know, measures to ensure that you’re not being punitive about it or, or arbitrary, can lead to some better results for everybody involved, for the aliens getting higher wages, for the- Yeah for the US citizens who don’t get fired so that they can be replaced. but, you know, in a, in an administration that has politicized every aspect of immigration, I mean, that kernel becomes, you know, something abusive. It could become something abusive, so.

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, we’ve seen it over the years,  like this, this focus on companies that are, you know, offside of the rule isn’t really anything new.

The government’s gone after Facebook. They’ve gone after Apple.  they just went after Cognizant for not really They followed the rules-ish. But they did some things that,  you know, were probably a little bit on the,  not within the intent of the law. And, you know, as an immigration attorney, like, we know this stuff happens, and a few bad actors spoil it, right? But- this, this idea isn’t brand new, but it’s certainly messaging, right? It’s messaging to all companies. It’s messaging saying, “If you want this, you’re gonna pay for it. If you want this, we’re gonna make it so hard.”  “And you better look at all your other staffing and labor to make sure that an American’s not been squeezed.”

Douglas S. Pierce: Yeah. And you better build If you’re gonna have layoffs in one particular period of time, you’re, you’re, you’re gonna wanna make and build the case for why you need to hire people now,  especially if you’re bringing in foreigners to do that work. You better have a darn good case for it and not have the appearance of, of doing this so you can do that.

Rosanna Berardi: Right. Exactly. So we’re telling all of our corporate clients, you know, on H-1B stuff to We would really wanna look back at their layoff history the last, you know, 18 to 24 months to see what’s going on.  and just to be clear, because it’s as clear as mud,  the $100,000 filing fee is not in effect today. It could be tomorrow.

Douglas S. Pierce: It could be, depending on outcomes of cases. It could be, it could be in effect tomorrow and then gone again the next.

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah. So,  you know, people get really worried about this, and they should. It’s a, it’s a lot of money. But basically if It’s intended for people outside of the United States. So if you’re here in the US and you’re doing a change of status or extension of status, that fee wouldn’t apply to you.  it’s for new petitions, which again, you said the best person to deport is the one we didn’t let in, right? Got you. And so, so that’s where this,  you know, this kind of goes. So yeah, the H-1B, whew, tough stuff.  people argue all the time, “We don’t need foreign workers in America. Good. You know, we don’t want this program.” But the flip side to that coin is we don’t have enough Americans to do some key jobs and roles and, and that’s why we turn to foreign labor.

Douglas S. Pierce: Right. And I, I think if you look at some of the really, the biggest, most successful tech firms in this country right now, and some of the biggest firms period, if there wasn’t that immigrant labor, they wouldn’t be in the position that they’re in.

Rosanna Berardi: And so- Yeah. Yeah, especially, I mean, we’ve seen it with, you know, Meta and now with the AI platforms, with ChatGPT. And, you know, the, a lot of the founders are immigrants. And, you know, we’ve been known as a nation of a melting pot and, you know, best and brightest come in, but certainly taking a closer look. So, so that’s the H-1B side. Now there’s something,  in effect called the public charge. Yep. And what the public charge is, is when you’re applying for a green card, if you’re being sponsored by your,  spouse or parent or an employer, there’s a component that says that as a green card holder, you will not become,  dependent on federal or state benefits. And that’s been around since the sands of time, right? That’s not anything new. But this new public charge that went into effect September 18th gives the government a whole lot of latitude. Can you tell me a little bit about your thoughts on that and, and how it’s changed from the old, the old rule- Sure to the new one?

Douglas S. Pierce: Sure. So with under the old rule, they only looked at cash benefits and they looked at,  you know, whether that person had received Let’s see. It, it was, it was cash benefits and housing assistance, I think is, was the primary. And under the new rule, it’s gonna be a much more holistic look at it. It’s gonna include all, any kinds of benefits that the a- the applicant has received, but also the officers can consider whether family members have accessed any kind of public benefits, and look at the whole family budget and see, you know, have you got kids that are getting ready to go to college, and do they need assistance? Even if they’re US citizens,  are they gonna be using, you know, government assistance in helping to get their educations? And while it’s not a direct thing, but it does inform, well, the larger financial picture of that family. And so the new rule is gonna give officers discretion to look at and consider the entire picture. And I think it’s gonna be toughest on those young love relationships, those first bloom relationships between an alien and a US citizen perhaps, or, you know, that they’re fresh out of college or still in college and they’re just trying to forge their way, which is always a difficult time, even if you’re all both in the same country. Right add in p- you know, now you have to show that you can financially support this person when you’re struggling to support yourself.  so I think it’s difficult for that.  and then, you know, I think in general, the later in life relationships that form when, when there’s already- You know, people are professionals or they have you know, well-established finances, it’s gonna be generally be easier, but there’s lots of later in life relationships of families that are just kind of on the edges of financial security. And again, this is gonna make it tough for them, you know?

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah, and especially now, I mean, everything is so expensive. The cost of living has just gone up, you know, incredibly. So this still allows people to apply for green cards. Like, none of that is changing. What it is changing is the government’s ability to kind of look under the hood of the sponsor. Right? And say, “Okay, sponsor, do you have enough money?  can you support this person?” We can look at pretty much anything, you know, at, from the government’s perspective. Now, true to form, 21 states have sued the federal government and said, “Nope, we don’t like this.

This is patently unfair.” Right. But all of those lawsuits are pending, so the public charge today, if you had an adjustment of status interview today, this public charge rule would be the lens to which the officer is going to look through.

Douglas S. Pierce: Right. And you don’t generally have to worry I mean, so, I mean, you don’t have to Like, the biggest thing is that there’s gonna be some sort of bond, right? If the officer feels that you need to have, post some sort of bond, but they have to request you to do it. They can’t, you can’t just, “here’s a, you know, $10,000 bond- Yeah that we’d like to apply.” The officer has to invite them to apply for that bond, and that would be their, I think, their real first indicator of, okay, the off- the agency has some concerns about their finances.  and then maybe that’s the decision point of who do we follow through on this or not, you know? Tough. Tough.

Rosanna Berardi: Yeah, and from, you know, from our office’s perspective, we’re really having people that have upcoming adjustment appointments really build a chronology of their finances and proof of, you know, cash, investments, loans, make it super easy. I’m sure, Doug, when you sat on the side of the USCIS desk, your favorite cases were the ones that were organized and did not make you go on a scavenger hunt for information.

Douglas S. Pierce: Absolutely. And it, and those, you know, those kind of well-prepared cases have it in, have it in cover letters with detailed, okay, and this is where you can find this information, this is where you can find that information. And yeah, as an officer or as a supervisor, you’re looking, “okay, how easy did they make this for me to, to find this information, to digest it, and understand it?” And the easier that is, the sooner I can move on to something else, like are they criminals or terrorists.

Rosanna Berardi: Yes. Yeah. So if you have an adjustment interview coming up, it’s really important to be super organized and thorough, and we always approach it with let’s give the government everything they need, no opportunity to say, “Well, what about this,” or, “Where’s that?” Or, right? Because then it just becomes very protracted- Right  and, and makes it difficult. So okay. So we’ve got the H-1Bs, we’ve got this public charge rule, and then finally we hear about the TN category and social media. Now, you and I both live in border towns. You’re in Detroit, I’m in Buffalo. Right.  the Canadian border is not far.  I’ve probably done a zillion TNs in my career. And the TNs are for Canadian or Mexican citizens that are coming to work in a professional position that is outlined on the NAFTA treaty. It’s now called the USMCA, but same thing. There’s about 70 occupations. And usually, you know, the TN is one of the easiest categories we prepare. It’s like, do you have an accounting degree? Yes. Are you working as an accountant? Yes. Great. Check, check. Apply at the border. Happy days. But now we’re seeing that the Department of State made a policy saying, “We’re still gonna check social media profiles of TN applicants.” What do you think of that?

Douglas S. Pierce: Well, I think it’s again, there, there is a kernel of, of wisdom in, in, within that, in the sense that, you know, back when social media first began, as an adjudicator I was thinking, you know, I had social media accounts and I was wondering, hmm, I, I wonder if what this person says on Facebook is matching what they’re telling me- Yeah face-to-face, right? And of course, quickly learned, well, you can’t do that. You can’t use your personal accounts to go searching for people on and stuff like that. So that was quickly put, the kibosh was put on, but I saw the opportunities for getting more information about the people that I was interviewing back in, you know, the early days of social media. 2005, 2010, that sort of stuff. You know, I’ve served my entire career during a time period when bef- you know, I started working for the government well before social media existed. And of course, working for the government, as you know, there’s tight rules on what you can do and can say publicly. And so I’ve lived my entire life with the idea that I can’t post anything on Facebook or social media that I’m gonna be embarrassed if somebody from my work or somebody- you know, sees and, and talks about, right? And so, I can’t do, can’t advocate for candidates, you know, couldn’t do advocate for candidates. So, so that’s one of the big reasons for my retirement was, well, hey, I get my first Amendment rights back. Yeah. And I can say what I want on social media. Of course, now I realize with the rules that have been in place, even as a US citizen, me crossing the border, if I take my electronic devices with me it’s subject to potentially being searched. And so what I say could be, could inform how they look at me as I’m crossing that border. And so, and that’s as a citizen, and where it’s got a lot more protections than somebody who’s not a citizen of United States. So,  I think in general, everybody, you know, in this era, we have to be aware of what we do on social media. And if you are living in someone else’s country, working, do- intending to do work in somebody else’s country, you better have your finger into the wind with testing- what’s, you know, and, and keep, keep what you say, keep what you do on social media to be social media safe in the context of where you’re at. The challenge, I think, for,  for these families that are looking at doing this is, it’s easy enough for me as the breadwinner, as the one who’s do- working for the government to do that, but I didn’t have to monitor my daughter. I didn’t have to tell my wife what she could or couldn’t say. Which would have been a challenge in the first place, but, and, you know, Canadians, I don’t think, have to worry in the sense that they’re not getting vetted by the Department of State because they don’t need, generally, to get the TN visas or the TD visas. But if they’re married to somebody who’s not Canadian, then that person has to get a, they’re gonna go through that State Department vetting.

If they’re Mexican or, or they’re gonna have to go through that vetting. And so I think they really do need to be aware of and, uh, live their lives on social media, first of all, to be consistent with the public life they’re living. And also be aware of the political winds, and make sure you’re not saying things, taking stands, you know, saying, “Abolish ICE,” that sort of stuff. Or- Yeah or, “Hey, go Palestine.”  you know, these are the kinds of things that the current administration has made a point of, of punishing people for.

Rosanna Berardi: For sure. And even, you know, regardless of this announcement from the Department of State that goes into effect on Thursday, October 1^st, social media and your life online is accessible at the borders when you’re crossing. We always tell people, make sure your story matches your stuff. Yeah.  you know, don’t call yourself, uh, the president of accounting when you’re really just the staff accountant. So don’t put that on LinkedIn.  Because even, you know, back in the day when we were appearing at the border on behalf of our clients, the officers were always looking on LinkedIn or,  social media to, to make sure, you know, that, what is being presented in front of them is indeed true. So, you know, it’s, it’s easy because we all carry on our phones and, you know, you’re sitting at a doctor’s appointment and you see an article and you repost it and, you know, you don’t really give a lot of thought to it, at least I don’t. But that can really haunt you regardless of whether you’re applying for a TN or crossing the border or are a US citizen or, you know. Yeah this electronic world that we all live in and are addicted to is definitely available for the government to look at.

Douglas S. Pierce: Yeah. And the people that most have things to consider are those with those stream of consciousness people that just any of their current moods- Right they’re posting whatever on social media, whereas the, most people, uh, live in more of a curated, you’re going to show only the good stuff. But the problem is you could take that curation too far, too, and, and- Yeah Be a little too aspirational, claiming positions that you don’t really have or- Right, exactly particularly important if you’re, if you’re saying, you know, you’re an accountant for this company, but then you’re, you’re, you’re showing your Bugatti and your,

Rosanna Berardi: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Story’s gotta match your stuff, people. It’s just gotta match. So, all right, so we covered 3 big areas. H-1B, the $100,000 fee is not in effect today, but could change, so stay with us on that.  we’ve got the government saying to its sister agencies, make sure these companies are playing by the rules and not laying off Americans. We’ve got the public charge rule, that’s for green card holders or potential green card holders, that say make sure the person that’s sponsoring you can really afford to sponsor you. So we’re, you know, recommending that people have a really good file of,  their ability to support themselves in terms of bank accounts and cash and, and investments. And then on the TN side for the Department of State for Canadians and Mexicans, they will be privy to looking at social media. So we’ve got a tightening, if you will. It’s the end of September. Midterms are about 6 weeks out. I expect a flurry of activity in the next month. Would you agree?

Douglas S. Pierce: I would agree. I think more executive orders are coming, more news-making cases, uh, for both sides presumably. Yeah.  and you know, if they, if ICE could, you know, find themselves a flashy arrest, they’ll make it. And they’ll publicize it as wide as they can. So, so yeah, I think, it’s just gonna get wilder as we get closer to the election. It’s not gonna slow down any.

Rosanna Berardi: So buckle up, stay tuned. We’re bringing you all this information.  Doug, thank you again for joining us on your birthday. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Buffalo, the upstate immigration AILA conference is this weekend. You’re gonna be a speaker on the panel with my partner, Jennifer Behm, so we’re excited to show you some Buffalo love. Yep. And, uh, keep up the good work.

Douglas S. Pierce: I’m looking forward to seeing everybody and I’ll If you’re gonna be in Buffalo at the AILA conference, come check me out. I’ll have cards. Be happy to talk to folks, so.

Rosanna Berardi: All right. Great. You take care now. Happy birthday. Bye-bye.

Douglas S. Pierce: Thank you. Bye-bye.