Boos knows immigration law
Local attorney recognized internationally

by Christopher Key

 

Canada’s struggle to redesign its health care system has resulted in quite a few highly trained critical care nurses facing the loss of their jobs. St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham needed nurses with skills that usually are not available in recent nursing school graduates. Around 30 of those Canadian nurses are now working for St. Joseph with the help of immigration attorneys like Greg Boos.

Nursing is among 65 professions listed in the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) as vital enough to come under special provisions easing immigration restrictions. Those lightened limitations, however, don’t mean that it’s easy to navigate the bureaucratic jungle of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (I & N). That’s where Greg Boos comes in handy.

“When I first came here,” Boos said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t even really know how to be a lawyer.”

Several years of trial work and defense of indigent clients convinced him that there were a lot of non-citizens residing in this country who needed help. For the past 15 years, Boos has specialized in business-related immigration issues and has become so successful that he spends a fair amount of time traveling and speaking about his area of expertise.

“Speaking is a double-edged sword,” Boos said. “I enjoy it, but it does take time away from the office. On the other hand, I learn a lot that helps me in the practice.”

Boos chairs the Border Issues Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has been in the spotlight quite a bit since last year’s terrorist attacks.

Boos has spent a lot of time for the last three years working behind the scenes to get the new NEXUS system up and running at the US-Canadian border. He was instrumental in pushing through legislation that made the system affordable. Instead of $3-400 for a one year permit, Boos’ hard work cut it down to $50 for a five year permit.

“It is vitally important,” Boos said, “to get low risk border crossers enrolled in NEXUS so that inspectors can focus on high-risk individuals.”

Whatcom County hosts some of the busiest crossings on the US/Canadian border and as such was impacted heavily by the events of 9/11. Boos’ practice was affected as well.

“There were days that the phones didn’t ring at all,” Boos said. “Now, there are days when they ring too much. The whole immigration process has changed. A lot more time is devoted to security and background checks.”

A lot of Boos’ calls come from people whose paperwork is hung up in the system. Some of them he can help and some he can’t.

“The US economy now depends on international business,” Boos said. “It is important to foreign companies operating in the US to be able to bring executives or specialists on whom the business depends. This is vital to the Whatcom County economy. If you lump all the Canadian owned businesses together, they would be the largest employer in the county.”

The hard fact is that the US educational system is not producing enough professionals in some fields, so imported talent is necessary. A lot of these professionals get green cards and eventually become citizens.

Seventy five percent of Boos clients come from Canada, but he also serves people from Japan, China, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Mexico. In order to keep up with the workload, he depends on a skilled staff and computers. AILA also helps. The association maintains a proprietary website on which the very latest information affecting immigration law is posted.

“The practice of law,” said Boos, “does not lend itself to a 40-50 hour week and immigration law is even worse because it is constantly changing. AILA is invaluable for getting out information quickly.”

According to Boos, the critical issue for Whatcom County right now is the new Department of Homeland Security. Rolling many jurisdictions into a superbureaucracy can cause significant problems if it is not done correctly. Some pending legislation would place Immigration and Naturalization in a completely separate division from the border patrol and customs. This could result in complications rather than a fast and predictable resolution to border questions.

The Border Patrol has been losing senior officers partly because they are not federally designated as law enforcement officers. They are thereby cut off from many job benefits that might keep them from seeking greener pastures. Boos says that a provision to make the guards federally recognized law enforcement personnel has been written out of the legislation.

Meanwhile, traffic at the border is still down from pre-9/11 levels and the economy suffers as a result. Boos believes that future may lie in making legal immigration the norm rather than the reverse. Legalizing many of the Hispanic immigrants who are de facto residents of this country and an integral part of the economy could free up a lot of resources that should be used to screen for terrorists, Boos suggested.

“Who is going to keep our berry and dairy farms going in Whatcom County,” Boos asks, “if we make things too difficult for immigrants? Many Americans shun agricultural labor, but the work still needs to be done.”

Boos suggests that a limited amnesty be offered to illegal immigrants who have been here for a certain number of years and have no criminal record. Many who come as temporary workers should be able to stabilize their status after a certain number of years.

“We are too dependent on trade and our workforce to lock our borders,” Boos said. “Immigrants built this country and we need them now more than ever.”