Immigration crackdown fears hit white-collar offices

• Some multinationals are even outsourcing jobs to other countries.

Where it stands: Companies are reluctant to talk publicly about immigration, but lawyers and HR consultants are fielding calls for help from employers with immigration anxieties regarding their professional employees.

• For the first time in 20 years of advising white-collar employers on immigration law, clients are asking, "'What do we do if there's an ICE raid?'" says Lori Geisinger, senior counsel at law firm OGC.
• Her typical clients employ those with at least a Bachelor's degree in professional fields such as IT and medicine.
• "They are frustrated, they are anxious, because foreign nationals are very anxious, and so it's creating anxiety for their managers," she says.

Friction point: White-collar employers are perhaps most nervous about employees who have work authorization under humanitarian programs — temporary protected status, asylum or parole — now under fire from the White House.

• These might include people from countries like Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ukraine or Haiti. "Even if they're legal today, they don't know if they're going to be legal tomorrow," says Jina Krause-Vilmar, CEO of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit that offers career assistance to immigrants.

Yes, but: Over the weekend, the Trump administration appeared to shift tactics. Bowing to pressure from businesses, the White House paused raids and arrests of workers at hotels, farms, meatpacking plants and restaurants, suggesting the fervor of the past few weeks may not be sustainable.

• Those exclusions aside, however, Trump late last night ordered ICE to increase its deportation efforts in large Democratic-run cities.

By the numbers: There are about 8.5 million undocumented workers in the U.S., according to an estimate, soon to be published, provided by Matthew Lisiecki, senior researcher and policy analyst at the Center for Migration Studies.

• "There's a fairly high share of undocumented workers in fast-growing occupations like data scientists and software developers," he says.

State of play: Many firms are now undertaking I-9 audits to make sure workers are authorized.

• "Employers are scrambling to figure out who they can employ because one of their obligations is to verify someone if their employment authorization is ending," says Daniel Pierce, immigration lawyer at Fragomen.
• "We've been very busy," says Emily Dickens, chief of staff and head of government affairs at SHRM. The human resource membership association has been prepping members for tighter immigration enforcement since January.

Zoom in: Some companies are proactively trying to help employees obtain green cards or other work authorizations.

• Others are letting people go, a process that observers say could accelerate in the coming months. "Plenty of people are ending up losing their jobs," says Pierce, who spoke of immigrant employees in blue- and white-collar jobs.
• There are also costs to consider. "I have to have hard conversations with clients, about how much they want to spend to keep people here, and whether they can find a U.S. worker to replace them," Geisinger says.

Zoom out: The goal of these restrictive immigration policies is ostensibly to funnel more jobs to U.S. citizens.

• But in many industries there simply aren't enough qualified native-born workers to employ. As the population ages, it's a situation that will only continue to intensify.
• Instead of hiring Americans, some multinationals with offices outside the U .S. are hiring more workers overseas, Krause-Vilmar says. "The reality is this is not good for America. It's in our national interest to keep jobs here."

The bottom line: We can add immigration uncertainty to the list of known unknowns that U.S. companies are now handling.