Webinar: Trump 2.0: Tuesday Updates with Rosanna Berardi - 5/12/26

Webinar Transcript:

“Good afternoon and welcome to the Berardi Immigration Law Trump Tuesday webinar. We’re doing these webinars to keep you updated the latest and greatest immigration developments. I’m Rosanna Berardi, managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law, and we’ll get started in just a minute.

Okay, so welcome Rosanna Berardi from Berardi Immigration Law. We are located in sunny Buffalo, New York. The sun is shining. Spring is upon us and immigration is still front page news. Now, you know, we’ve got this war going on with Iran that nobody really saw coming. But let’s remember and let’s not forget that. This administration was elected solely to fix immigration. Now the economy was a big deal, but immigration was the reason that they got elected.

The Trump administration has been dedicated to Fixing immigration. I can’t say I agree with the manner in which that is trying to happen. But nonetheless, the administration is keeping the immigration story front and center. Do you notice we don’t hear about the ICE raids anymore? Do you notice that’s not front and center and the story was buried? Did it stop? Maybe. Were Americans polled and said we hate this? Probably. And the administration has pivoted.

What’s happening right now is not as… audacious as the ICE raids that we were seeing earlier in the year. But we’re seeing some subtle changes that keep reinforcing the issue over and over again that immigration to the United States is going to be difficult. And if you want to come here, boy, are we going to make it difficult.

So let’s get started. We’re going to go over three things today that the administration has quietly done that might seem like, This is like nerdy. This doesn’t apply to me. But listen up, because these three developments have the potential of really impacting the U.S. labor market.

So the first, the Department of Labor prevailing wage bombshell. I don’t think I’ve ever said Department of Labor and bombshell in the same sentence, but stay with me here. What the heck does this mean? All right, I’ll drill it down and make it really simple.

The prevailing wage is a concept in which the Department of Labor requires U.S. employers who sponsor foreign workers to pay them a prevailing wage. What does that mean? That means a fair wage based on the applicant’s education, experience and where he or she may live. Now, the wages here in Buffalo, New York, are way different and lower than Los Angeles, California or Chicago, Illinois.

So the prevailing wage is a concept and it’s the response to people erroneously saying, well, employers just hire foreign nationals because they’re cheaper. No, that’s wrong. Stop saying that. The prevailing wage is the government’s way of saying to employers, hey, listen, you’re not going to pay this foreign national thirty dollars less an hour because he or she is from a foreign country.

So what’s going on? Prevailing wage has been around since the sands of time. It’s a way to ensure that foreign nationals are paid fairly. The bombshell, stay with me here, the bombshell in immigration law is that the minimum prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor are going to increase by average of fourteen thousand dollars a year per worker.

What does this mean? Why do you care? Why is anyone wasting their lunch hour listening to me? You should care, particularly if you’re an employer or a foreign national employee, because it’s going to cost more to hire a foreign national. What does this mean? This means if you want to hire a foreign national, the prevailing wage concept has always been there, but the government’s going to adjust the numbers significantly.

Who’s this going to impact? Every worker that’s from another country aside from the U.S. We’re going to see the tech industry hit, finance, engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, basically every industry that’s out there that’s reliant on foreign workers.

Now, the rule’s not in effect today. It is not applying right now. It is up for public comment. What does that mean? Well, when the government actually does something correct, they make a proposed rule to change the existing rule. And it goes out to the public to comment for a 30 or 60 day period. Well, right now we’re at the tail end of the public comment period, which is May 26th. Employers can say, “We don’t agree with this. This is costing us too much money already. We already pay a lot of money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” If you’re an employer, I can certainly tell you how to do that. But I can also tell you that this is going to happen just because we’re in the comment period. It is very unusual for a proposed rule not to go into effect despite a comment period.

So we’re going to see this. What does this mean? This means you need to budget more for your foreign national employers. It’s a punitive measure by the administration. It’s the if you want them, you’re going to pay for them. Well, them is required because they’re wonderful and smart and bring a different flavor to the U.S. workforce and needed, even though in a country of our size, three hundred thirty million people. Why don’t we have enough workers for these industries? Because we don’t. We don’t, and foreign labor fills in a significant gap, and I would argue a critical gap and one that really makes the U.S. economy unique and diverse.

So the DOL prevailing wage bombshell rule means if you’re an employer that’s going to hire foreign nationals, it’s going to cost you more on the labor side. And if you’re an employee of foreign national, it may be harder to get sponsorship. Now, we’re not trying to talk you out of this. We’re just preparing you for the future. Budgeting’s a big deal in the corporate world. We hear that all the time. And we wanted to let you know. We’ll keep you posted when this one goes into effect. But the takeaway from the DOL bombshell, wages are going up. It’s not in effect today. It will probably be in effect really soon. And it’s going to cost you some money to hire foreign nationals. That’s the takeaway for that rule.

The second bombshell. It’s so funny because in my mind, I just wouldn’t call these bombshells, but that’s what the media calls them because it’s fun language. So the H-1B season, we’re right in the middle of it. The H-1B is for professionals who hold a bachelor’s degree that come and work for a U.S. employer that requires a bachelor’s degree. It’s a lottery system. You throw in an application if the government selects it. you get a bite at the H-1B apple. It’s been a lottery for a long time.

But this year we saw a weighted lottery. Again, these subtle changes that seem very academic, but are huge in practice. So what did we see? There was a weighted lottery that basically said, okay, we’re still gonna have this H-1B lottery, but individuals who hold a higher level of education and compensation are gonna have a better chance of getting one of the coveted lottery numbers.

So overall selection rate this year, about 34 to 42 percent. Kind of a little higher than normal in past years, usually about thirty percent. But listen up, people. If you are a level four wage, meaning you’ve got a bachelor’s or master’s and a high compensation level, you had a fifty nine percent chance of getting an H-1B number. That’s significant. Whereas a level one entry level worker had only a fifteen percent chance.

So what does this mean? This means the administration is trying to narrow the funnel of who is working in the United States. They want the best and they want the brightest. That’s OK. That’s not anything new. What is new, though, is we’re seeing this very microscopically delineated for high-level professionals.

So the H-1B cap season has ended with respect to the lottery and the chance at the lottery. But the messaging here, remember a year ago when the government came out and said, Yeah, well, not a year ago, September of 25. We’re going to charge $100,000 for H-1B filings. I’ll never forget where I was that day. I was sitting eating dinner and it came across my phone and I almost fainted because even for me that has been doing this for 29 years, a one hundred thousand dollar random filing fee is just insane. However. The one hundred thousand dollar fee is in effect for individuals who are outside of the US, along with this weighted lottery, along with this DOL bombshell to increase.

What do we have here? We have a message from the United States government. If you’re an employer and you want to hire foreign nationals, you are going to pay for it multiple levels through wages. through the weighted lottery system, through the proposed rule of increasing the amount it’s going to cost you for the $100,000 fee. We do have clients that pay that fee. Shame on the federal government for putting an employer in that position. But we’re seeing this stacking of difficulty, right? They can’t close the borders. Not possible. Can they make it harder to come in? They sure can. And they are.

So these things are buzzing. They’re like third page stories in the Wall Street Journal or maybe Forbes. But they’re really, really important if you are foreign national or an employer.

Finally, we are going to talk about the mass deportation. Remember when President Trump was elected on immigration, fixed immigration, he was going to deport the highest number of people ever. He was shooting for a million people to be deported. Now, industry insiders like us knew that that wasn’t going to be possible.

And what’s happening now? Well, in January, February, ICE raids were on the front and center page of every news outlet, and they quietly went away. What’s happening? I will argue all day that the administration did some polling to Americans, and they said, this is terrible. This is garbage. We hate it. Shut it down. Did they shut it down? Sort of.

Quietly, the new Department of Homeland Security secretary said, is no longer entering homes without judicial warrants. That’s probably a good move. The government has deported seven hundred and fifty thousand illegal immigrants way far away from the one million goal per year, which we knew was not going to happen.

What does this mean? It means that the government is still fixated on enforcing the U.S. immigration law. But it also means that it’s not over just because we’re not seeing it front and center. They’re doing things. Make sure your employees, if you’re an employer, are I-9 compliant. They have valid work permits. They carry those work permits with them. We’re not really hearing or seeing people getting pulled from their homes, thank God, from their cars or on streets. We’re really not seeing that. But if you’re a foreign national, it’s always best practice, always best practice to have your documentation. And if you’re an employer, it’s really important to make sure your I-9s are compliant.

This is short and sweet, just like me. I’m Rosanna Berardi, the managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law. We’re here to bring you short updates on how this all works. U.S. immigration will always be front and center with this administration. So stay tuned, follow us online, and we’ll continue to keep you posted. Thanks. Thanks and have a great day.”