On the Fragomen Audit

The U.S. Department of Labor announced earlier this week that it has begun auditing all permanent labor certification applications filed by attorneys at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP, a respected international immigration law firm. The department stated that it "has information indicating that in at least some cases the firm improperly instructed clients who filed permanent labor certification applications to contact their attorney before hiring apparently qualified U.S. workers. The audits will determine which, if any, applications should be denied or placed into department-supervised recruitment because of improper attorney involvement in the consideration of U.S. worker applicants."

Immigration Daily had some haresh words for teh DOL's action:

"In an unprecedented action by DOL, all PERM applications involving attorneys at the Fragomen law firm are being audited. This punitive action is directed at the largest filer of PERM cases in the country. . . .  (For the cognoscenti, the significance of the dates and the organizations is as follows: ETA committed itself publicly to this action on 6/2, and in some shape or form, ETA came under attack subsequently. In the ensuing fracas, ETA convinced its parent organization to back it, and DOL did so on 6/4. In other words, the political action behind the scenes has escalated over the last few days from."

KJ