Grant Sovern Shares Insights on Outlook for Skilled Foreign Workers in Legal Dive Article
In a Legal Dive article, Grant Sovern, national co-chair of the Quarles & Brady Immigration & Mobility Practice Group, offered his perspective about what the anti-immigration mindset of President-elect Trump’s administration could mean for U.S. companies that employ skilled foreign workers.
The article addressed what employers should expect and the steps they should be taking to prepare for potential policy changes.
An excerpt:
Companies with a high percentage of skilled foreign workers will face friction the first few years of any push by the Trump administration to curb immigration. But if they’re careful about their hiring practices and prepared to spend more to maintain their talent pipeline, they should get through it fine, says immigration law specialist Grant Sovern of Quarles & Brady.
The first Trump administration gave companies a look at how an anti-immigration push might look — and how to push back against it, Sovern told Legal Dive.
“There were executive orders, regulations that were quickly changed outside of normal administrative procedures, things like that, but when employers sued the government and said you can’t do that, by and large they won,” he said. “They won 70%-80% of the time. There are still laws that protect us.”
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Even if the rules change, companies that prepare for the extra time, complexity and cost of compliance should be able to maintain their new-hire pipelines.
“Companies are going to have to anticipate spending more,” he said. “No employer wants to make immigration their central focus, but if they can’t meet their business goals without the best and the brightest, they’re just going to have to change budgets and decide what’s important.”