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Renata Castro, Esq.
Editor’s Note: Many restaurants need labor, and many recent arrivals to the United States need work. Why don’t they connect? In this interview with el Restaurante Publisher Ed Avis, immigration attorney Renata Castro of Castro Legal Group in Pompano Beach, Florida, explains that restaurant owners hoping to hire migrants should build relationships with prospective hires even before they attain legal status.
Ed Avis: What should a restaurant owner advise a person who comes to them and says, “Hey, I want a job,” but they don’t have a Social Security card or a green card?
Renata Castro: If you're a restaurant owner, you should not be afraid to ask the right questions and be blunt and say, “We have a zero tolerance for individuals who work in our restaurant without employment authorization.” However, you should not shun those potential employees. Because a lot of times people just don't know that they could maybe get an employment authorization document because they were victims of human trafficking, or they may have a U visa case, which is for victims of crime. It's obviously not going to be with everybody, but developing a relationship and being helpful creates good rapport in the community for that restaurant owner. Most importantly, that'll give that employer a leg up in hiring.
How would doing this help with hiring?
That employer can create a pipeline in a blind spot where other restaurants are not working in. A great employee in a restaurant setting is worth their weight in gold, so if that restaurant owner can create rapport with that individual, and perhaps connect them with an immigration attorney who could advise them, they’re creating a trout pond that they can fish in in the future to find a good reliable workforce.
If someone comes to a restaurant who doesn't have work authorization, what are the odds that this person falls into one of the categories that eventually will allow him or her to work?
There is a large number of individuals who are just waiting for their asylum clock to make them eligible for employment authorization documents. These people cannot work until they receive the documents, but they're on the verge of receiving them. So an employer can ask, “Are you waiting for an employment authorization document?” Because if that person says, yes, that employer could conduct an interview and say, “I'm really interested in you. I think you would have a future here, so the moment you receive your employment authorization document, we'll have you start training.” I think that that's a very common scenario.
Second, many Mexicans in the United States have entered without inspection, and a lot of them have been victims of human trafficking. I would say that out of 10 individuals who entered the United States with the assistance of a coyote, maybe six have been trafficked and do not know that they are eligible to petition for a visa called the T visa. And that's why this partnership with the immigration firm is so important, because if that individual qualifies for a T Visa, maybe that person is four to six months away from having employment authorization documents.
The federal government offered temporary protected status (TPS) for the Venezuelan migrants who arrived before July 31st. But I've heard that it takes a long time for these individuals to get their work permits. What's going on with that?
Yes, the process takes a long time because it's necessary for the government to run international background checks. It's a complex immigration system. And the people who are making decisions on cases are not lawyers. They're running from a checklist. So you have this incredibly complex area of law being handled by administrative workers.
Can a restaurant owner do anything to help in these situations?
Yes, an employer can actually help in some cases. In the case of the Venezuelans, for example, who have TPS, if their employment authorization document is pending, the employer can make a job offer contingent upon showing proof of an employment authorization document, and that individual can make an expedited request to the federal government in light of the loss in opportunity saying, “I'm here, I have a job lined up, but I can't work until I have my employment authorization document and here's proof.”
Wow, that seems promising. How difficult is filing an expedited request?
It's a rather streamlined process. You make the request and there's no interview, and then the government will make a decision. I've seen it approved in as little as 15 days, but we tell our clients that between 30 and 90 days is the reasonable time that that individual would be waiting to receive their employment authorization documents. There's no fee to file that request. We recommend that a lawyer do that just so that you keep in compliance.
I’m sure prospective employees would appreciate that support from a restaurant owner.
For sure. Think about the rapport you're creating with your future employee. Everyone else out there is turning a cold shoulder to prospective employees. If they are on the line to get papers, you want to secure a relationship with that prospective employee now so that when their papers are here, who are they going to think of first? They're going to think of you and the humane and strategic way that you treated them and helped them. That goes a long way.
The TPS is an 18-month period. What happens after that 18 months? Can they stay? Can they keep working?
The TPS designation is renewed periodically by the federal government, so employers should be monitoring which groups are being designated. Usually when a country has received TPS designation, it means that there’s a catastrophic circumstance happening in that area, and by the sheer nature of the condition, it’s going to take a while for that area to recover. So it’s unlikely that you’re going to go from having TPS to not having TPS after a short period of time. Let’s look at Venezuela. If the Venezuela government was to be removed from power today, there is still a lot of political discord and economic mayhem going on in the country, which would warrant the extension of TPS by the federal government.
What are some other potential ways migrants could get legal work status?
For example, individuals in the United States with a student visa, they have legal status. In some cases they can work for a year, and if they’re in a STEM education class, they can work for almost three years legally. If that employer has a recruitment process going, which is a lot cheaper than people think under the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) program, now this employer can go to colleges and universities and recruit these students so that they can work there once they receive their employment authorization. And when we think about the average span that an employee lasts in a restaurant, if someone can work for a restaurant owner for two or three years, that's a reasonable amount of time.
All of the strategies you have suggested take time, which an owner with a vacancy may not have.
I understand that an employer has an immediate need for someone to fill a position. What a lot of employers are not doing is being strategic about the need for continuous recruitment. So when the opportunity arises and they need more people, boom, you have great people available to you.
The restaurant owner should be thinking, “How do I create a pipeline of qualified, committed workers who will come in and while they’re here, they will give their all?” Because if you have that pipeline going, you would be in a much better position than a lot of restaurants that are having worker shortages and just not taking advantage of these strategies.
That employer should have a strategic meeting with an immigration attorney as to how they can be proactive in creating a hiring process that capitalizes on some communities that no one is looking to hire.