Are You Afraid? Immigration Worksite Enforcement Is Coming
This session will feature panelists with expertise in the law, regulations, executive orders and agency practices involved in several domains of federal immigration worksite enforcement. Departments and agencies to be covered will include the DHS's Office of Suspension and Debarment, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, USCIS's FDNS, the DOL's Wage and Hour Division (H-1B enforcement), and the DOJ's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section. The panelists will discuss anticipatory compliance measures, strategies for minimizing risk and exposure, ways to build a team of multidisciplinary subject matter experts in immigration and white-collar defense, and strategies for gaining the focus of corporate leadership in dealing with ominous immigration worksite enforcement threats.
Mareza Estevez
Mareza I. Estevez (“Rez”) serves as lead in-house immigration law counsel to Infosys Limited (NYSE: INFY). As legal director of a corporate multinational immigration department spanning the world, Ms. Estevez develops legal strategy, supports business strategy, and advises senior leadership and operational groups on immigration law matters globally. Ms. Estevez directs legal strategy for the in-house immigration operations and compliance groups in the preparation and filing of cases for permanent and temporary visa benefits in the U.S. and other countries for thousands of employees. Ms. Estevez advises and guides compliance operations relating to U.S. immigration, and significantly contributes to immigration compliance activities for other geographies. Ms. Estevez regularly counsels senior business leadership on legal and business considerations relating to immigration operations, strategic planning, potential acquisitions, corporate and crisis communications, investigatory and enforcement matters, and governmental relations. Before joining Infosys Limited, Ms. Estevez served as Senior Director – Legal for the global immigration function at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH). Before going in-house, Ms. Estevez practiced Immigration and Nationality Law at large national law firms in New York and Washington, D.C. She is an active member of ACC (American Corporate Counsel), has authored/ co-authored numerous articles in the field, and has served as an expert panelist and speaker at a wide array of legal fora. Ms. Estevez is admitted into the practice of law in the states of New Jersey and New York. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Rutgers University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Rutgers School of Law – Newark.
Nicole Kersey
Ms. Kersey provides advice, project management and consulting services on Form I-9 and E-Verify matters to help organizations of all sizes avoid civil and criminal penalties, as well as ancillary damage to reputation, caused by weaknesses in their immigration-related hiring and record-keeping practices. Ms. Kersey represents employers before, during, and after Form I-9 inspections by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, providing practical advice to and serving as an advocate for employers during negotiations and litigation relating to fines for I-9 violations. She is a frequent trainer and speaker on I-9 and E-Verify issues.
Ms. Kersey has practiced immigration law for 12 years, working with large and boutique law firms to provide services to clients in the hospitality, finance, manufacturing, construction, retail and technology industries, among others. She provides pro bono assistance to arts organizations and to military families. She is learning to play the electric guitar with her daughter, has never been to Maine, recently learned to shuck oysters, and can probably be found at the Renwick Gallery after her panel presentation, as it is her favorite museum in D.C
Randolph Sawyer, CFE, CCP
Randolph Sawyer is the founder and CEO of Tunlaw Consulting, LLC. As a consultant, he acts as an independent monitor on Compliance Agreements, implemented risk management programs, and builds organizational cultures of integrity and compliance. He has a proactive approach to identifying and preventing risk, a proven ability to build consensus, and a consistent history of modeling the highest levels of integrity and professionalism. He is considered an SME for federal suspension and debarment activity, corporate internal controls, compliance hotlines, process design, and best practices for ethics and compliance program management. He is fully cognizant of FAR and DFARS contracting procedures, and both pre-award and post-award Federal contracting issues.
Randy is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE); Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP); Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) Level III; FAC Contracting Officer Representative (FAC-COR) Level III; and, FAC in Program and Project Management (FAC-P/PM) Level I. He is an active member of the American Bar Association Suspension and Debarment Committee; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners; Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics; and has conducted training for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Randy is a graduate of the University of Texas, at Austin, with both a MA in Economics with a focus on labor law and a BA in Economics, Cum Laude, with a focus on comparable economics systems.
Randy worked most recently with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the DHS Suspending and Debarring Official (SDO). He is an expert at the federal Suspension & Debarment process; both under the FAR and the NCR. During more than eight years with DHS, he gained extensive expertise as the SDO at DHS and previously as the SDO at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Prior to that, he managed complex federal contracts for ICE in the USA and Bechtel National in Jordan and the USA; performed as the Director of Contracting for PWC Logistics in Kuwait, and as a Staff Contracting Officer with Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) as an activated USAF Reservist serving in Iraq. He was an Audit Manager and Staff Auditor with Air Force Audit Agency for six years. His contracting experience includes contract administration, acquisition planning, and evaluating contractor performance.
Career highlights include building an S&D program for ICE that became a Center of Excellence for DHS and was identified by the GAO as one of the most successful programs in the federal government.
Publications include: “Suspension and Debarment as a Tool to Combat Human Trafficking,” Feb 1, 2015. The Procurement Lawyer, Volume 50, Number 2.
The New Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) and De Facto Debarments, Dec 1, 2012. Contract Management/National Contract Management Association.
Angelo A. Paparelli
Angelo A. Paparelli is a Partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP and a California State Bar Board-Certified Immigration Law Specialist. He counsels, represents and defends clients in a wide array of employment-based immigration compliance matters: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) inspections; DOL H-1B Wage and Hour Division investigations; USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security site visits, Justice Department antidiscrimination investigations by the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, as well as involving mergers, acquisitions, and other entity changes; policy formulation; charges of discrimination and retaliation; petitions and applications for work visa and green card benefits (including the EB-5 and E-2 investor programs), and thought leadership in reforming immigration law.
He is named a Band 1 immigration lawyer by Chambers & Partners and Legal 500, a Los Angeles Daily Journal’s 2019 Top L & E California lawyers, and listed in Human Resource Executive® magazine’s Most Powerful Employment Attorneys Hall of Fame. He blogs at Nation of Immigrators www.nationofimmigrators, and serves as a member of the board of editors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s AILA Law Journal, which published his April 25, 2019 article, “USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate: Less Legitimate Than Inspector Clouseau, but Without the Savoir Faire.”