October 2007 Newsletter

Nashville Office Relocated, Website Expanded

There have been many changes this year for the Frager Law Firm. We have expanded and relocated our Nashville Office to the following address: Two International Plaza Dr., Suite 810, 37217. Our telephone numbers remain the same and are listed on our website at http://www.fragerlaw.com/. We also have a new web address at http://www.realimmigration.com/. We encourage you to visit our expanded website and read the new content that we have developed for our clients and prospective clients. Our expanded website has many links incorporated into it which can lead you straight to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service ("USCIS") website or the Government or private website that is the primary source for the information you may be interested in. It is our goal to cut through the time our clients spend on the net researching issues of interest to them, and to provide our website for use as a "favorite" that allows our clients to bypass the many websites that try to sell them things that they should get for free, such as USCIS forms and information.

Waiting for the Law to Change

The most important issue facing many of our clients is whether Congress will pass any form of Comprehensive Immigration Reform or piecemeal immigration bills, such as the DREAM Act or H-1B reform. Each year, the need for revising our immigration laws becomes more obvious and clear, yet congressional bickering has left the issue unresolved on a federal level. Many states, including Tennessee, are trying to restrict benefits and privileges that aliens in the U.S. can receive, such as a driver's license. Legislatively, Congress has passed some harsh laws, such as the REAL ID Act, of which we are just now feeling the impact on a day to day basis as people find it even more difficult to obtain driver's licenses and other forms of identification. The State of New York has shown courage in their new policy of allowing illegal immigrants an opportunity to obtain a drivers license by marking on their DMV application that they are "ineligible for a social security card." We must encourage our state legislators to pass similar legislation in Tennessee and surrounding jurisdictions.

Keep Track of Changes in Your Case

At the Frager Law Firm, we believe that our goal should be to advise clients on how to keep their families together while our U.S. Congress and President resolve the difficult challenges of border security and how to treat the 12 million illegal aliens estimated to be in the United States. It is our concern that if our clients leave the U.S., then they may not benefit from any liberalized immigration legislation that may pass in the upcoming year(s). This advice must be tempered with the need to advise our client base on what the law is today and not what the laws may be in the future. For this reason, we ask all of our active clients to meet with us every year to make sure that we revise any legal advice that we may have given you to reflect any changes in immigration law or Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") policy.

DHS "No Match" Regulation

One example of a changing DHS policy is how employers are supposed to treat "no match" social security letters in order to benefit from the "safe harbor" protection. In the past, the employer would offer the employee an opportunity to correct the "mismatched" social security number. Now, DHS has published a regulation that burdens the employer in a manner we have never seen before, and could cause even legal workers to lose their jobs. This regulation has caused a great deal of confusion and panic in employers and employees, and is already the subject of litigation in federal court. It has been halted temporarily by a Preliminary Injunction. We strongly urge employers to schedule time to meet with us so that we can discuss the changes in DHS regulations and policies on social security mismatch letters and other enforcement issues, and how these changes may affect your business and your workforce.

Client ID Cards

Several years ago, we began issuing Client ID cards. If our clients are stopped by the police or immigration officers, they now have a plastic card which they can present to law enforcement to expedite a call their lawyer for information on their case. This has proven very useful for our clients when they are stopped by law enforcement, especially when they do not speak English well. The Client ID card provides the officer with an easy way to obtain additional information when the client doesn't know how to explain his or her specific situation to the officer who is questioning him or her. For those active clients who do not have a Client ID card, we ask you to make an appointment so that we can issue you one, free of charge. If you are not an active client and still would like a client ID card, please make an appointment to come and see us so that we can try to accommodate your request.

Help is Available 24 Hours a Day at 901-371-5333

Our 24 hour number remains available for all clients who have the need to reach us after hours or on weekends when they have an emergency or matter that cannot wait for normal business hours.

Growing to Meet Your Needs

Our staff has increased dramatically over the years to meet the growing needs of our clients. If you would like to read about the background of our staff members, we have included information of our legal staff on our website for you to review. We are proud of our staff, including the five lawyers and many paralegals and law clerks that work hard to assure that the immigration benefit you seek has the best possible chance of being approved or attained.

Zealous and Successful Advocates

Our success rate on our cases before Immigration Judges is one we remain proud of. Under the direction of Mr. Frager, a former INS Trial Attorney, we pride ourselves on aggressively and zealously representing our clients before DHS and the Immigration Court so that our clients know they have had a fair hearing of their case before DHS and the Immigration Judge. We take our role as your advocate in these proceedings very seriously and expect our clients to do the same.

Interpreters

Another service we pride ourselves on is making an effort to speak to our clients in their language, whenever possible. We currently have staff members who speak the following foreign languages:

Spanish
Chinese
Arabic
Edo
Hindi
Ishan
Urdu
Yoruba
Punjabi
Polish
French

We will help you locate interpreters in other languages when you may need them.

Memphis Annual Holiday Party

We had an open house to celebrate the opening of the new location of our Nashville Office on Saturday, October 20, 2007. The party was a resounding success!

Our Memphis Office will celebrate our annual Holiday Party at our Clark Tower Office on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 between 7-9:30 pm. We welcome the opportunity to have our friends and clients join us for this event and hope that you will mark the date on your calendar. Please contact Debra at (901) 763-3188 and provide your client ID number to confirm attendance for the party so that we can know to expect you.

As we approach the year 2008, we pray that your families remain healthy and happy in the upcoming year. We will do what we can to help you achieve your goals regarding your immigration cases. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve as your Attorney and advocate.