Halting the Deportation of Businesses: A Pragmatic Paradigm for Dealing with Success

Abstract:     
This article proposes the creation of a new visa category for certain undocumented entrepreneurs to resolve the issue of the de facto deportation of the undocumented entrepreneurs' business upon their removal. Part I of the article briefly discusses the economic benefits of immigration, and focuses on the specific benefit of certain high-value undocumented immigrant business creators. Part II then analyzes the economic and social policies behind the current immigrant and non-immigrant investor visa programs, noting that the purpose of the proposed visa coincides almost entirely with the existing legal regime with the exception of its availability to certain undocumented immigrants. While recognizing and discussing the arguments against rewarding unlawful presence, the article concludes that for economically-oriented visa categories, economic concerns have and should continue to be given priority over social ones. Part III proposes certain profitability, participation, employee generation and tax compliance metrics that would need to be satisfied to ensure visa eligibility, noting specifically the attendant issues of corporate structuring. By creating such a visa, U.S. immigration law would incentivize and reward successful entrepreneurial activity, and by doing so strongly benefit the U.S. economy and establish a mechanism that would allow some of the most successful and talented immigrants to legalize their immigration status when they would otherwise be unable to do so.

Keywords: immigration, commercial, business, investor, entrepreneur, visa, immigrant, nonimmigrant, undocumented

Accepted Paper Series